The  Statesmen  Seriec 


U 


O'CONNEtL 


J.A.HAMILTQN. 


SMSMMMSIMM 


n 


berkTieyX 
LIBRARY 

UNIVERSITY  OF 
CALIFORNIA/ 


STATESMEN      SERIES. 

EDITED   BY  LLOYD  C.  SANDEKS. 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL. 


UK   Bighi$   rtturtfd.) 


STATESMEN    SERIES. 
LIFE    OF 

DANIEL  O'COMELL. 


BY 

J.    A.    HAMILTON. 


LONDON: 

W.  H.  ALLEN  &  CO.,  13  WATERLOO  PLACE, 

PALL  MALL.    S.W. 

1888. 


LONDON : 
PRINTEB  BY  W.  H.  ALLEN  AND  CO.,  13  WATKBLOO  PLACE,  PALL  MALL.      S.W. 


LOAN  STACK 


PREFATORY   NOTE. 


The  only  complete  Life  of  O'Connell  hitherto  published 
is  Miss  Cusack's,  a  bulky  and  uncritical  book,  founded, 
however,  upon  a  considerable  quantity  of  unpublished 
materials,  chiefly  correspondence  with  Archbishop 
McHale,  not  all  of  which  was  used.  John  0*Connell 
began  a  life  of  his  father,  which  he  brought  in  two 
thick  volumes  as  far  as  1824.  Of  this  book  it  is 
difficult  to  speak  temperately.  A  son,  writing  of  his 
father  in  the  father's  lifetime,  is  not  expected  to  be 
impartial,  but  that  is  no  reason  why  be  should  be 
grotesquely  eulogistic  of  his  father  and  his  party  and 
indecently  abusive  of  his  opponents.  Such  merit  as 
the  book  has  is  due  to  its  being  a  kind  of  sorap- 
book  of  the  speeches  and  resolutions  at  the  meetings 
from  1810  to  1824.  The  same  author's  edition  of  his 
father's  speeches  is  carried  only  a  year  or  two  farther. 
He  also  published  a  volume  of  Parliamentary  Remiois* 
oences ''  from  1883  to  1842,  which  contains  a  number 

304 


vi  PBEFATOEY  NOTE. 

of  his  father's  letters  of  the  years  1829  and  1840. 
William  Fagan's  Life,  which,  considering  that  it  ap- 
peared in  a  Cork  newspaper  immediately  after  O'Con- 
nell^s  death,  is  a  meritorious  work,  ends  at  1838. 
Huish's  Life  breaks  off  in  the  middle,  and  is  almost 
valueless ;  Graeme's  Life  is  the  same.  The  Centenary 
Record,  published  by  the  O'Connell  Centenary  Com- 
mittee of  1875,  contains  some  new  information,  which 
the  arrangement  of  the  book  makes  as  inaccessible  as 
possible.  O'Neill  Daunt's  Reminiscences  deal  almost 
exclusively  with  the  last  ten  years  of  O^Connell's  life, 
but  are  very  valuable.  Dr.  William  Forbes  Taylor, 
under  the  sobriquet  of  '*  A  Munster  Farmer,"  published 
a  short  and  temperate  review  of  O'Connell's  career,  called 
A  Munster  Farmer  s  Reminiscences  of  O^GonnelL  I 
have  endeavoured  to  collect  what  was  valuable  from  all 
these  sources,  in  order  to  construct  at  once  a  picture 
of  the  man  and  a  sketch  of  his  career;  and  where 
they  disagreed  I  have  presumed  that  the  truth  must 
have  been  best  known  to  John  the  son  and  Daunt 
the  friend.  Mr.  Shaw  Lefevre's  Peel  and  O'Connell 
has  been  before  me,  but  its  scope  is  rather  foreign  to 
the  object  of  this  book.  I  have  not  dissented  from 
the  general  estimate  and  conclusions  of  Mr.  Lecky's 
masterly  essay  in  the  Leaders  of  Public  Ojnnion  in 
Ireland,  which  seems  to  me  to  possess  all  the  finality 
that  is  possible,  until  O'Connell's  epoch  has  passed  into 


PREFATORY  NOTE.  vii 

the    cooler  temperature    of   history    and    ceased  to  be 
steeped  in  the  burning  atmosphere  of  Irish  controversy. 
In  addition  to  these  works  the  authorities  are  Wyse's 
History    of   the     GatJiolic    Association    and     Charles 
Butler's  Historical  Memoirs  of  the  Roman  Catholics ; 
Mr.  W.  J.   Amherst's   History  of  Catholic  Emancipa- 
tion, which   is   carried  only  to   1820,  is  also   a  useful 
book.     For  the  Repeal  period,  DuflFy's  Young  Ireland 
and  Four  Years  of  Irish  History  are   of  the  first  im- 
portance.     For   the    legal    part   of    O'ConnelPs    life, 
OTlanagan's  Munster  Circuit  and  Irish  Bar  are  useful. 
I    have    consulted    also    D.    O.    Maddyn's    Chiefs    of 
Parties^  Cloncurry^s   Personal  Reminiscences,  the  lives 
severally    of     Canning,    Althorp,    Melbourne,    Ellen- 
borough,  Shell,    Drummond,    and    Dr.  Doyle;    Peel's 
Memoirs,    the     Greville    Memoirs,    Lord     Hatherton's 
Memoir,  Lord  Colchester's  Diary,  Guizot's  Embassy  to 
St,  James'  in  1840,  and  Barrington's  Personal  Skeiche9. 
For  visits  to  Darrynane  Catherine  O'Connell's  Excur- 
sions  in  Ireland  and  Howitt's  Journal,  vol.  i.  p.  828 
are  useful.     J.  Venedey,  a  fair-minded  German,  pub- 
lished an  interesting  account  of  what  he  saw  in  Ireland 
in  1848,  and    in  a  small    work    by  M.  Gavrois,  pub- 
lished at  Arras,  called  O'Connell  €i  le  Collide  At$^la%M 
a  St.  Omer,  there   are    several    interesting  partioulan 
about  O'Couneirs  early  and  his  last  days.      For  foreign 
opinion  the  following  books  may  be  looked  at,  though 


viii  PREFATORY  NOTE. 

they  do  not  add  much  to  our  knowledge  of  him  :  an 
Elogio,  recitato  nei  solenni  funerali  celebratigli  nei 
giorni  25  e  30  Guigno  1847,  by  Father  Gioacchino 
Ventura,  Napoli  1848 ;  Leopold  Schipper's  Irlanda 
verhdltniss  zu  England ;  Moriarty's  Lehen  und  Werken 
O'ConneWsy  and  two  pamphlets  by  J.  M.  de  Gaulle 
and  by  Jules  Gondon.  Among  Magazines,  the  New 
Monthly  Magazine  from  1821  to  1832  contains 
articles  by  Sheil  and  others,  and  Macmillans  Magazine^ 
vol.  xxviii.,  a  valuable  article  by  Mr.  Ball.  I  have  also 
made  use  of  various  pamphlets,  and  for  general  history 
have  followed  Mr.  Spencer  Walpole's  excellent  book. 

J.  A.  H. 


CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  L 

feABLY   AND   PBOFESSIONAL   LI7B. 

^Btoily,  birth,  education,  and  call  to  the  bar— A  United  Irishman — 
Professional  snccess^^Aniecdotes  of  profoBsional  life  p.  1 


CHAPTER  n. 

^tiTt   SECUfilTIBS   C0NTE0VEB8T, 

1800-1818. 

Position  of  the  Catholic  movcmDnt-^Loadonhip  of  John  Kcogh — Tho 
period  of  «*  dignified  silence  "—The  Veto— The  Catholic  Board — 
Grattan's  Bill  of  1818^Qiiarantotti*8  rescript — CoIIapte  of  Um 
Catholic  party  ........      p.  IS 


X  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  ni. 

CATHOLIC   DESPONDENCY. 

1814-1823. 

State  of  Affairs  after  the  Dissolution  of  the  Board — O'Connell's  Duel 
with  D'Esterre — Affair  with  Peel — Trial  of  Magee  for  libel  on  the 
Duke  of  Richmond — Visit  of  George  IV.  to  Dublin  ,       p.  48 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE    CATHOLIC   ASSOCIATION. 
1823-1828. 


The  germ  of  the  Catholic  Association — The  Catholic  Rent — The  Act 
of  1825— The  Relief  Bill  and  Wings  of  1825— The  New  Catholic 
Association — The  Waterford  and  Clare  Elections     .         .      p.  61 


CHAPTER  V. 

EMANCIPATION. 

1828-1842. 

Result  of  the  Clare  Election — Dissolution  of  the  Catholic  Association — - 
Catholic  Relief — Refusal  of  O'Connell's  claim  to  take  his  seat — 
Second  Clare  Election — Repeal  Agitation — Conflict  with  the  Mar 
quis  of  Anglesey — Reform       , p.  79 


CONTENTS.  xi 


CHAPTER  VI. 

THE   EEFOEMED    PARLIAMENT. 

1833-1835. 

Tithe  War — O'Connell  renews  his  agitation  against  Tithe  and  for 
Repeal— The  Reform  Bill— "Who  is  the  traitor?"— Coercion  Bill 
of  1833 — O'Oonnell's  Repeal  motion — Intrigne  with  Littleton — 
Fall  of  the  Whigs — Peel's  Administration      ...      p.  106 


CHAPTER  VII. 

WHIG  ALLIANCE. 
1835-1840. 

Disappointed  of  Office — Tonr  in  Scotland — The  Oarlow  Election 
Scandal — Abandonment  of  Repeal — The  Irish  Poor  Law  Bill  — 
Accession  of  the  Qneen  and  O'Connell's  loss  of  popularity  in 
Ireland — Reprimanded  by  the  Speaker — The  Precursor  Society 

p.  126 


CHAPTER  Vni. 

THE   BEPEAL   ASSOCIATION. 
1840-184d. 


Ropeal  Association  founded-^Irish  Municipal  Roform~-O*0oanell  Lord 
Mayor  of  Dublin — The  founding  of  the  Natitm^-Th^  Repeal 
Dobato^Tho  Monster  Meetinge^The  Mallow  Deflanoe^OloaUrf 

p.  147 


xii  CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

LAST  DATS* 

1843-1847. 

The  trial — The  jtidgment  of  the  House  of  Lords — The  Federal  coli* 
troversy — The  conjlict  with  Yonng  Ireland — Alliance  With  the 
"Whigs — The  Famine — Last  days  and  death  ...      p.  167 


CEAPTEE  X. 

DOMESTIC   LIFE   AND   CHAEACTEH* 

His  wife  and  family-^His  domestic  life  and  amusements — His  pet* 
sonal  piety — His  appearance — His  oratory — His  political  cha- 
racter and  aehieyements  <«<*<«      p.  195 


UjU^^rPj^ 


LIFE    OF 

DANIEL    O'CONNELL 


CHAPTER  I. 

EARLY   AND   PROFESSIONAL   LIFE. 

Family,  birth,  education,  and  call  to  the  bar — A  United  Irishman — 
Professional  success — Anecdotes  of  professional  life. 

In  a  bouse  called  Carhen  House,  long  since  dis- 
mantled, which  stood  in  the  farthest  extremity  of  Kerry, 
between  the  Kenmaro  River  and  Dingle  Bay,  about  a 
mile  to  the  north  of  the  little  town  of  Cahirciveen, 
there  was  born,  on  the  6th  of  August  1775,  Daniel 
O'Connell.  In  the  wild  districts  of  south-western  Ire- 
land, the  family  of  O'Connell,  or,  as  they  were  origi- 
nally called  O'Conal,  had  long  been  established,  at  one 
time  in  Limerick,  at  another  in  Kerry,  and  at  another  in 
Clare.  So  remote  was  this  part  of  Ireland,  that  through 
the  most  rigorous  period  of  the  Penal  Code,  when  the 
law  was  so  strictly  administered  that  Roman  Catbolics 
were  constrained  to  resort,  and  not  in  yain,  to  the  good 
faith  of  Protestant  neighbours,  and  to  avoid  confisoa* 

1 

c 


2  LIFE  OF  DANIEL  O'CONNELL. 

tion  by  conveying  to  those  good  friends,  as  unavowed 
trustees,  the  lands,  which  the  laws  forbade  persons  of 
their  faith  to  hold  themselves,  the  O'Connells  had 
kept  unconfiscated  and  undisturbed  a  small  moun- 
tain estate  called  Glencara,  simply  because  its  inacces- 
sibility and  seclusion  had  saved  it  from  the  notice  and 
the  grasp  of  the  law.  At  the  end  of  the  eighteenth 
century  they  were  country  gentry  of  easy  circumstances 
and  good  standing  in  their  neighbourhood.  Darrynane 
Abbey,  the  family  seat,  an  old  farmhouse  increased  to  a 
considerable  size  by  picturesque  but  irregular  additions, 
was  in  the  possession  of  Maurice,  the  head  of  the  family. 
It  stands  near  the  shore  of  Cahirdonnel  Bay  in  a  very 
lovely  situation,  and  has  close  by  the  remains  of  an 
abbey  founded  by  the  monks  of  St.  Finbar  in  the 
seventh  century.  Another  brother,  Morgan,  kept  a 
shop  in  Cahirciveen  and  dealt  in  silks,  laces,  and  wines 
smuggled  over  from  France.  He  accumulated  money 
and  invested  it  in  land  in  the  names  of  Protestant 
trustees.  He  married  Catherine,  a  sister  of  John,  The 
O'Mullane,  of  White  Church,  county  Cork,  and  lived 
at  Carhen.  Of  his  numerous  family,  no  less  than  ten 
survived  their  childhood.     The  eldest  was  Daniel. 

Maurice  O'Connell  was  childless,  and  soon  adopted 
Daniel,  who  was  his  natural  heir,  and  another  of  Morgan's 
children,  also  called  Maurice,  and  a  great  part  of  their 
boyhood  was  spent  at  Darrynane.  Daniel  was  a  bright, 
intelligent  child.  To  the  end  of  his  life,  his  tenacious 
memory  retained  the  recollection  of  having  been  car- 
ried in  his  nurse's  arms  to  the  seashore,  to  see  two  of 
her  boats  towing  Paul  Jones's  ship  out  of  shallow  water 
to  a  deeper  anchorage.  This  was  in  1778.  While  still 
but  four  years  old  he  received  his  first  teaching  from  an 
old  hedge  schoolmaster,  named  David  Mahoney,  one  of 


EARLY  AND  PROFESSIONAL  LIFE.  8 

that  class  of  poor  scholars,  particularly  numerous  in 
Kerry,  and  produced  by  the  repressive  Penal  Laws,  who 
wandered,  half-beggar,  half-scholar,  from  house  to  house, 
claiming,  and  never  failing  to  receive,  the  hospitality  of 
the  country-side.  The  old  man  took  the  child  upon  his 
knee,  and  so  won  his  heart  and  fixed  his  attention,  that 
the  whole  alphabet  was  learnt  in  an  hour  and  a  half, 
Daniel  proved  a  ready  scholar.  He  would  turn  over  the 
portraits  of  the  celebrities  in  the  Dublin  Magazine,  say- 
ing, **  I  wonder  will  my  visage  ever  appear  in  the  Dublin 
Magazine'^ ;  he  composed  a  drama  on  the  fortunes  of 
the  House  of  Stuart  at  ten  years  old  ;  and  so  fond  was 
he  of  reading,  that  he  would  desert  his  play-fellows  to 
sit  cross-legged  in  the  window-seat,  devouring  Coolcs 
Voyages,  and  crying  over  its  pages  of  adventure. 

The  policy  of  the  Penal  Laws  had  been  to  render  the 
education  of  their  children  as  difficult  as  might  be  to 
the  Roman  Catholics,  if  not  wholly  impossible.  At  the 
beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century,  they  were  forbidden 
to  establish  schools  of  their  own,  to  be  teachers  in 
Protestant  schools,  to  teach  in  a  private  house  any  but 
the  children  of  their  own  family,  or  to  send  their  chil- 
dren abroad  to  receive  the  education,  which  was  denied 
them  at  home.  The  Catholic  gentry  were  obliged  to 
smuggle  their  sons  over  seas  by  stealth,  and  many  a 
lugger,  which  had  run  a  contraband  cargo  successfully 
on  the  west  coast,  took  baok  to  France  a  few  new 
scholars  for  St.  Omer  or  Salamanca,  Louvain  or  Li^ge. 
It  was  not  until  1792  that  the  restrictions  were  re- 
moved which  prevented  them  from  setting  up  sobools 
of  their  own.  The  first  school  publicly  opened  by  a 
priest  was  kept  by  a  Mr.  Harrington  at  Kedington  in 
Long  Island,  some  two  miles  from  the  Cove  of  Cork^ 
and  to   tills,   when   Daniel  was  thirteen  years  old,   and 

1     • 


4  LIFE  OF  DANIEL  O'CONNELL. 

had  been  for  some  time  taught  at  home  by  a  tutor 
named  John  Burke,  he  and  his  brother  were  sent. 
Without  showing  particular  precocity,  he  was  indus- 
trious and  obedient,  and  enjoyed  the  unique  distinction 
of  being  the  only  boy  in  the  school  who  never  was 
flogged.  Here  he  remained  for  a  year,  but  higher 
education  was  still  hardly  to  be  attained  by  a  Roman 
Catholic  in  Ireland.  Trinity  College,  Dublin,  was  prac- 
tically closed  to  him,  as  were  its  endowments  by  law, 
and  in  the  usual  course  of  the  education  of  lads  of 
family,  the  two  O'Connells  were  sent  to  the  Continent. 
They  went  first  to  Liege,  only  to  find  that  they  were  too 
old  to  be  admitted  there.  They  then  went  to  Louvain, 
among  whose  fifty  colleges  several  were  Irish,  and 
waited  there  for  instructions  from  home.  During  the 
interval  Daniel  attended  some  of  the  University  lec- 
tures. At  length,  in  January  1791,  they  were  placed  at 
the  college  at  St.  Omer.  It  has  often  been  said  that 
Daniel  was  at  this  time  destined  by  his  uncle  for  the 
calling  of  a  priest,  but  he  was  himself  at  the  pains  to 
deny  the  statement  in  a  letter  to  the  Dublin  Evening 
Post,  17th  July  1828.  He  proved  himself  a  ready  and 
quick-witted  pupil,  and,  being  placed  in  the  classes  of 
grammar  and  poetry,  was  easily  first  in  both  of  them. 
Doctor  Gregory  Stapylton,  the  fortieth  and  last  Pre- 
sident of  the  College,  wrote  of  him  in  January  1792, 
**  With  respect  to  the  elder,  Daniel,  I  have  but  one  sen- 
tence to  write  about  him,  and  that  is,  that  I  never  was 
so  much  mistaken  in  my  life  as  I  shall  be,  unless  he  be 
destined  to  make  a  remarkable  figure  in  society." 

On  the  20th  of  August  1792,  he  went  to  the  College 
at  Douai,  where  he  was  placed  in  the  class  of  rhetoric, 
and  remained  there  until  the  21st  January  1793.  At 
the  end  of  1792,  the  Douai  College  was  suppressed,  and 


EARLY  AND  PROFESSIONAL  LIFE.  5 

the  boys  were  obliged  to  wait  some  weeks  before  they 
could  communicate  with  their  uncle  in  Kerry.  They 
then  returned  home,  but  it  was  not  without  danger  that 
they  reached  the  coast.  The  soldiers  assaulted  their 
conveyance,  and  abused  them  as  **  little  priests'*  and 
*^  aristocrats.^'  For  safety's  sake  they  were  compelled 
on  the  journey  to  wear  the  tricolor,  which  they  tore  in 
disgust  from  their  hats  when  they  found  themselves 
securely  on  board  the  packet  at  Calais.  His  education 
in  France  left  enduring  marks  upon  O'Connell's  cha- 
racter. What  he  heard,  and  to  some  extent  what  he 
himself  saw,  of  the  French  Kevolution,  made  upon  his 
susceptible  mind  an  impression  which  influenced  his 
whole  life.  He  imbibed  strong  Bourbon  opinions  and 
an  intense  hatred  of  the  Revolution  and  the  Revo- 
lutionaries, who  were  the  persecutors  of  his  Church, 
"  I  was  always  in  terror,"  he  said,  "  lest  the  scoundrels 
should  cut  our  throats  ;  on  one  occasion  a  waggoner  of 
Dumouriez's"^  army  scared  me  and  a  set  of  my  fellow 
collegians  who  had  walked  out  from  Douai,  crying 
*  Votla  les  jeunes  Jesuites  !  les  Capucins  ! '  So  we  ran 
back  to  our  college  as  fast  as  we  could,  and  luckily  the 
vagabond  did  not  follow  us."  He  was  by  nature  de- 
voted to  his  Church,  and  his  training  deepened  this 
disposition  of  his  mind.  He  was  often  accused,  and 
not  without  truth,  of  Jesuitry  in  his  policy,  and  the 
French  accent  which  hung  about  his  English  pronun- 
ciation on  his  return  home  never  entirely  left  him.  To 
the  end  of  his  days  he  pronounced  "  Empire '" 
"  Empeer,"  and  accented  the  word  **  charity  "  as  if  it 
were  '*  <?fcari/c." 


*  Dnmouriez  won  the  battle  of  Jemappes  in  the  Aaetrian  Nethw> 
landi,  about  thirty-six  milei  from  Donai,  on  NoTember  6,  179i. 


6  LIFE  OF  DANIEL  O'CONNELL. 

After  spending  the  remainder  of  the  year,  1793,  at 
home  in  Kerry,  moving  among  the  peasantry  whom  he 
learnt  to  know  so  well,  and  enjoying  with  the  ardour  of 
a  keen  sportsman  the  hare-hunting  of  the  Kerry  moun- 
tains, O'Connell  went  to  London  to  begin  the  period  of 
studentship  at  an  English  inn  of  court,  which  was  ne- 
cessary before  he  could  be  called  to  the  Irish  bar.  He 
entered  himself  at  Lincoln's  Inn"^  in  1794,  and  took 
lodgings  in  a  court  on  the  north  side  of  Coventry  Street, 
but  in  1795  he  removed  to  a  boarding-house  at  Chis- 
wick.  That  his  years  of  studentship  were  spent  in  no 
merely  nominal  attention  to  the  law,  is  proved  by  the 
fact  that  his  learning  in  his  profession  was  at  all  times 
unquestionable  and  profound,  and  that  after  he  had  been 
a  few  years  at  the  bar,  his  practice  and  his  political  work 
were  so  engrossing,  that  he  could  have  had  little  time 
left  for  further  study  and  research.  The  first  five  years 
of  a  successful  lawyer's  life  are  those  during  which  not 
the  foundations  only  but  much  of  the  superstructure  of 
his  learning  must  be  created.  O'Connell's  mind  was 
ceaselessly  active,  with  a  natural  bent  for  law,  but  he 
must  from  the  first  have  vigorously  exercised  it  upon 
text-books  and  case-law  to  have  attained  the  knowledge 
which  he  indubitably  possessed.  The  recollections  of 
bis  life  in  France  had  made  him  by  antipathy  a  strong 
Tory,  and  when  Hardy  was  put  upon  his  trial  in  Oc- 
tober 1794,  O'Connell  attended  at  the  Old  Bailey  day 
after  day  to  see  the  man   brought  to  justice,  whom  he 

*  O'Connell's  biographers  do  not  agree  as  to  what  inn  he  studied  at ; 
his  son  John  says  Lincoln's  Inn,  Daunt  says  Gray's  Inn,  and  Shiel  the 
Middle  Temple.  All  of  these  may  be  presumed  to  have  had  means  of 
knowing  the  truth.  Fagan  follows  Daunt  and  Huish  Shiel ;  Mr.  Shaw- 
Lefevre  puts  him  at  ^the  Inner  Temple.  There  are  no  other  Inns  of 
Court. 


EAELY  AND  PBOFESSIONAL  LIFE.  7 

regarded  as  the  advocate  and  accomplice  of  the  French 
Kevolution.  But  day  by  day  the  bigotry  of  Scott  the 
Attorney-General,  the  eloquence  of  Erskine,  Hardy's 
counsel,  the  weakness  of  the  case  for  the  Crown,  and 
the  justification  which  appeared  for  Hardy's  speeches, 
themselves  effected  a  revolution  in  O'ConnelTs  mind, 
and  he  left  the  court  at  the  end  of  the  trial  cured  for 
life  of  his  brief  fit  of  Toryism. 

At  length  his  studentship  was  over,  and  returning  to 
Ireland,  he  was  called  to  the  Irish  Bar  on  May  19th, 
1798.  Whatever  may  have  been  the  intentions  with  which 
Maurice  O'Connell  of  Darrynane  had  sent  his  nephew  to 
St.  Omer,  it  was  clear  at  that  time,  and  to  a  young  man 
of  his  temperament,  that  the  bar  offered  the  only 
career  in  Ireland  that  could  satisfy  his  aspirations. 
As  a  boy,  O'Connell  had  his  ambition.  Once,  when 
he  was  about  ten  years  old,  they  were  discussing 
Flood,  Charlemont,  and  Grattan,  then  at  the  height 
of  their  reputation,  round  the  fire  at  Darrynane.  The 
usually  vivacious  child  was  observed  to  be  sitting 
silent  and  abstracted.  "  Daniel,"  said  his  aunt,  '*  what 
are  you  thinking  of?  '^  **  Why,  let  me  tell  you,"  he 
replied,  *'  I  'm  thinking  I  '11  make  a  stir  in  the  world 
yet."  It  is  said  that  he  had  been  particularly  excited 
by  the  career  of  his  uncle  Daniel.  This  oflBcer,  the 
youngest  brother  of  Maurice  O'Connell,  had  entered 
the  French  service  in  1759,  as  a  sublieutenant  in 
Clare's  regiment,  when  still  only  a  lad  of  fourteen. 
By  1787  he  had  risen  to  the  rank  of  a  major-general, 
and  was  colonel  in  command  of  the  German  regi- 
ment of  Salm-Salm  in  the  French  army.  In  1788, 
he  invented  a  system  of  infantry  tactics,  which  was 
soon  adopted  by  all  the  armies  of  Europe.  Subse- 
quently ho    was    made    Count    O'Connell,  aud   when. 


8  LIFE  OF  DANIEL  O'CONNELL. 

about  1794,  several  regiments  of  the  Irish  Brigade  were 
drafted  into  the  British  service,  he  became  a  colonel  in 
the  British  army.  But  apart  from  his  uncle's  brilliant 
reputation,  there  was  enough  in  the  career  of  a  barrister 
to  tempt  O'Connell  to  climb  that  way  to  eminence.  He 
had,  as  strongly  as  ever  any  Irishman  has  had  it,  the  legal 
turn  of  the  Irish  mind  ;  he  was  subtle,  ready,  disputa- 
tious, astute.  In  a  country  where  the  aristocracy  and  the 
landlord  class  were  always  prone  to  absenteeism,  and  if 
resident  pinned  their  hopes  on  the  favour  of  the  Govern- 
ment ;  where  the  body  of  merchants,  though  well-to-do, 
indeed,  and  enterprising,  was  small  and  almost  confined 
to  Dublin  and  Belfast,  the  bar  became  the  only  body  in 
Ireland  capable  of  taking  a  prominent  position  before  the 
public  eye.  The  warfare  of  the  law  courts  fascinated 
the  Irish  as  it  never  has  done  the  English.  The  English 
have  been  content  to  regard  the  proceedings  of  the  law 
as  a  matter  of  art  and  even  of  mystery,  to  be  respected 
perhaps,  to  be  tolerated  certainly,  to  be  admired  never. 
But  to  the  Irish,  and  especially  to  the  Irish  peasantry, 
a  trial  was  an  arena,  in  which  wit  and  craft,  eloquence 
and  cunning,  performed  a  drama  which  they  fully  un- 
derstood and  followed  with  enthusiasm.  A  smart  and 
shifty  witness,  a  clever  though  unscrupulous  attorney,  a 
neat  quibble,  an  impassioned  appeal  to  a  jury,  a  bold 
address  to  a  judge,  and  a  sharp  passage  of  arms  be- 
tween counsel,  delighted  the  spectators,  and  passed 
from  mouth  to  mouth  in  a  thousand  good  stories.  Nor 
did  the  bar  exist  for  law  and  lawyers  only.  Instead  of 
an  antagonism  between  letters  and  law,  such  as  the 
English  have  always  known,  the  best  of  Irish  wit  and 
Irish  letters  was  to  be  found  among  the  practitioners  of 
the  Irish  bar. 

The  Four  Courts,  then  just  completed,  have  long  been 


IE  ABLY  AND  PROFESSIONAL  LIFE.  9 

a  classic  ground  for  Irish  stories :  every  circuit  in  Ire- 
land had  similar  traditions,  and  its  leaders  enjoyed  a 
reputation  and  popularity  over  the  counties  whose 
assizes  they  attended,  which  was  of  itself  a  kind  of 
fame.  But  not  only  was  the  profession  as  a  profession 
attractive  to  a  young  man ;  its  connection  with  Irish 
pohtics,  and  especially  with  Irish  popular  politics,  was 
of  the  closest.  A  great  number  of  the  Irish  Parlia- 
mentary leaders  were  members  of  the  Irish  bar,  and  the 
public  had  an  access  to  the  courts,  which  they  had  not 
to  the  House  of  Commons.  Under  the  strict  system  of 
government  which  had  so  long  prevailed  in  Ireland,  the 
barrister  was  almost  the  only  person  who  had  the  oppor- 
tunity of  making  a  figure  before  the  people,  while 
espousing  the  popular  cause.  There  was  no  one  else 
whose  interest  and  duty  combined  to  bring  him  on 
occasions  into  conflict  with  the  Government  coram 
j)oj)ulo.  The  gown  which  in  England  clothed  some 
passed-master  in  the  mysteries  of  replevin  or  contingent 
remainders,  of  ouster  or  trespass  upon  the  case,  was  in 
Ireland  the  robe  of  the  hero  and  the  patriot.  Political 
and  professional  success  reacted  upon  one  another. 
Ninety  years  ago,  still  more  even  than  to-day,  to  be  a 
popular  champion  in  politics  was  no  bad  way  of  obtain- 
ing briefs  in  court ;  and  to  have  the  tongue  of  a  ready 
advocate  was  an  excellent  recommendation  for  a  young 
man  ambitious  of  a  public  career. 

When  0*Connell  joined  the  Irish  bar,  a  new  day  had 
recently  dawned  for  the  Roman  Catholic  lawyer.  During 
the  earlier  part  of  the  century,  Boman  Catholics,  who, 
whether  in  hopes  of  pension,  place,  or  practice,  were 
minded  to  come  to  the  bar,  had  been  obliged  to  take  the 
oaths  against  Popery,  which  the  Penal  Laws  imposed, 
and  to  conform  outwardly   to  the  Established  religion. 


10  LIFE  OF  DANIEL  O'CONNELL. 

Their  object  once  attained,  they  had  often  relapsed  into 
a  suspected  state,  half-way  between  conformity  and 
Catholicism,  in  which  many  of  them  were  content,  as 
the  price  of  toleration,  to  become  the  disreputable  tools 
of  the  Government.  From  this  unhappy  temptation  an 
Act  of  the  Irish  Parliament  had  recently  relieved  the 
Catholics,  and,  although  labouring  under  great  educa- 
tional and  some  social  disadvantages.  Catholic  barristers 
had  now  a  fair  field  for  their  talents.  Into  this  field 
O'Connell  was  among  the  first  to  step. 

For  two  or  three  years  after  his  return  to  Dublin, 
though  he  frequented  a  debating  society  in  Eustace 
Street,  he  occupied  himself  but  little  with  politics.  He 
lodged  in  Trinity  Place,  and  having  no  relations 
and  few  friends  in  Dublin,  he  was  thrown  very  much  on 
his  own  resources.  He  became  a  Freemason,  and  even 
master  of  his  lodge,  No.  189,  and  continued  to  be  one 
till  1801.  That  he  had  some  connection  with  the  con- 
spiracy of  1798  is  probable.  He  was  sworn  in  as  a 
United  Irishman  and  attended  at  least  one  meeting  at 
which  John  Shears  was  present,  but  he  took  no  part  in 
the  proceedings.  His  most  intimate  friend  in  London 
had  been  a  young  Irishman,  of  good  family,  Richard 
Newton  Bennett,  and  Bennett  was  a  member  of  the 
Directory  of  United  Irishmen.  An  accident  gave  him  a 
hint  of  the  danger  of  going  farther.  He  was  at  this  time 
living  a  convivial  and  dissolute  life.  Though  no  drun- 
kard, and  indeed  one  of  the  first  to  set  his  face  sternly 
against  the  extravagance  of  compulsory  wine-bibbing, 
which  then  prevailed  among  the  Irish  gentry,  he  occa- 
sionally got  drunk.  Coming  home  emboldened  with 
good  liquor,  from  a  party  at  the  house  of  his  friend 
Murray,  a  cheesemonger  of  3,  Great  George  Street,  one 
evening  in  the  month  of  March,  1798,  he  found  a  knot 


EARLY  AND  PROFESSIONAL  LIFE.         11 

of  miscreants  persecuting  a  poor  street-walker.  With 
generous  courage  he  interfered  to  protect  the  girl,  and 
was  at  once  attacked  himself.  Being  a  finely-built 
athletic  young  fellow,  he  knocked  three  of  his  assailants^ 
down,  but  was  then  pinioned  from  behind  and  hit 
savagely  about  the  face.  For  some  days  his  bruisea 
compelled  him  to  keep  his  room.  His  landlord,  a  re- 
spectable fruiterer  named  Ryan,  took  the  opportunity  of 
giving  him  some  good  advice.  He  warned  his  lodger 
to  have  nothing  to  do  with  the  conspirators  and  their 
plans,  as  from  what  he  had  heard  at  the  Castle  in  the 
course  of  his  business,  he  knew  that  the  Government  wa» 
quite  alive  to  all  the  details  of  the  plot. 

Such  is  the  story  told  by  O'Conneirs  son  ;  but  a  son 
of  Murray's  used  to  declare  that  his  father  only  pre- 
vented the  arrest  of  O'Connell,  who  was  desirous  of 
going  to  swear  in  members  at  a  neighbouring  meeting  of 
United  Irishmen,  by  prevailing  on  him  to  go  down  to 
the  quay  and  quit  Dublin  that  night  in  a  turf-boat* 
Scarcely  was  he  gone  when  Major  Sirr  reached  Murray's 
house,  which  he  had  just  left.  A  few  months  after- 
wards his  life  was  very  nearly  cut  short  by  a  violent 
illness.  While  staying  at  Darrynane,  and  before  his 
first  circuit,  in  August,  he  got  wet  through  on  the 
hills  in  following  his  favourite  sport,  and  heedlessly 
slept  in  his  wet  clothes  in  a  peasant's  hut.  Next  day 
he  was  taken  ill,  and  for  many  days  lay  at  death's 
door  with  typhus.  His  brother  John  came  to  see  him. 
The  insurrection  had  then  broken  out.  He  recovered 
consciousness,  and  cried  out,  **  What  news  from  the 
disturbed  districts?  I  am  to  be  a  delegate."  But 
his  vigorous  constitution  stood  him  in  good  stead,  and 
his  life  was  saved. 

From  whatever  source  his  lesson    came,    O'Coonell 


12  LIFE  OF  DANIEL  O'CONNELL. 

accepted  it,  and,  from  the  disastrous  results  of  the  rising 
of  1798,  contracted  a  life-long  horror  of  all  armed  re- 
bellion, and  of  secret  societies,  whose  members  are  al- 
ways so  much  at  the  mercy  of  a  spy.  He  never  forgave 
the  men  of  '98,  and  used  to  speak  of  them  in  terms  of 
harsh  and  almost  unjust  censure.  "  It  was  they,"  he 
said,  "  who  helped  Pitt  to  carry  the  Union."  During 
Emmett's  rising,  he  served  in  the  Lawyer's  Artillery 
Corps,  and  was  called  out  on  various  services,  in  the 
course  of  which,  at  considerable  risk  to  himself,  he 
restrained  his  comrades  from  the  commission  of  gross 
illegalities.  What  he  then  saw  strongly  impressed  him 
with  the  inferiority  for  the  maintenance  of  civil  order  of 
a  volunteer  body  to  a  regular  military  force.  Its  want 
of  discipline  and  professional  self-restraint  hurry  it  into 
the  commission  of  excesses  just  when  forbearance  is 
most  needed.  He  saw  the  tendency,  as  he  put  it, 
**  when  a  man  has  arms  in  his  hands  to  be  a  ruffian." 

He  made  by  his  profession  in  his  first  year  £58, 
In  his  second  he  made  dG150,  in  his  third  i6200,  in  his 
fourth  ^315,  and  thereafter  his  income  rose  rapidly. 
He  joined  the  Munster  Circuit,  which  included  the 
counties  of  Cork,  Kerry,  Limerick,  and  Clare,  where 
his  family  connection  was  strong.  In  the  autumn 
of  1813  there  were  twenty-six  cases  at  the  Limerick 
Assizes,  and  he  was  briefed  in  every  one  of  them. 
He  continued  to  go  circuit  for  two  or  three  and  twenty 
years,  and  after  that  only  went  for  a  special  fee,  when 
his  visits  were  made  the  occasion  of  public  rejoicings. 
In  his  last  year  of  practice,  though  he  lost  a  whole 
term,  he  made  nine  thousand  pounds.  **  The  last  hour 
of  my  practice  at  the  bar,"  he  said  of  himself,  **I  kept 
the  court  alternately  in  tears  and  in  roars  of  laughter." 
As  Shiel  says  of  him,  *'  from  some  of  the  witnesses  he 


EARLY  AND  PROFESSIONAL  LIFE,         13 

extracted  that  they  were  unworthy  of  all  credit,  being 
notorious  knaves  or  process-servers  ;  others  he  inveigled 
into  a  metaphysical  puzzle  touching  the  prisoner's 
identity ;  others  he  stunned  by  repeated  blows  with  the 
butt-end  of  an  Irish  joke  :  for  minutes  together  the 
court  and  jury,  galleries  and  dock,  were  in  a  roar."  For 
a  long  time  his  practice  lay  very  largely  in  criminal 
courts,  but  his  opportunities  of  making  speeches  were 
for  some  time  very  limited.  Counsel  for  the  prisoner 
in  those  days  was  not  allowed  to  address  the  jury,  and 
O'ConnelFs  skill  lay  in  his  knack  of  insinuating  half-a- 
dozen  speeches  to  the  jury  while  pretending  to  argue  a 
point  of  law  to  the  judge.  The  rank  of  King's  Counsel 
was  conferred  only  on  Protestants,  and  Roman  Catholic 
juniors  were  obliged  to  apply  themselves  to  the  exa- 
mination and  cross-examination  of  witnesses.  For 
this,  O'Conneirs  intimate  knowledge  of  the  Irish 
peasant's  mind  peculiarly  fitted  him,  and  as  a  cross- 
examiner  he  was  unrivalled.  Once,  in  1822,  he 
cross-examined  a  witness  with  such  severity  that  the 
man  made  a  rush  at  him  from  the  table,  but  fortunately 
fell  to  the  ground.  Numberless  are  the  stories  of  his 
astuteness  in  dealing  with  witnesses,  whose  evasions  and 
shifts,  though  paltry  in  their  design,  were  ingenious  and 
clever  with  a  wholly  Irish  cleverness.  In  one  case  the 
issue  was  whether  a  purported  will  had  been  duly  exe- 
cuted by  the  testator  or  was  a  forgery.  0*Connell  was 
struck  by  the  fact  that  one  witness  reiterated  several 
times  in  one  set  phrase,  that  he  saw  the  testator's  hand 
sign  the  will  "  while  life  was  in  him."  He  turned  sud- 
denly on  the  man.  **  By  virtue  of  your  oath  !  "  he 
cried,  "  did  not  someone  write  with  the  dead  man's  hand, 
while  a  live  fly  was  placed  in  his  mouth  ?  "  The  wit- 
ness, crestfallen,  admitted  it,  and  the  case   was  won. 


14  LIFE  OF  DANIEL  O'CONNELL, 

To  another  witness,  who  denied  that  he  was  drunk, 
because  ^*  he  had  only  had  his  share  of  a  quart," 
O'Connell  quietly  said,  '*  Come,  wasn't  your  share  all 
but  the  pewter  ?  "  and  the  man  owned  that  it  was.  A 
prisoner  whom  he  had  successfully  defended  upon  some 
charge  thanked  him  with  topsy-turvey  goodwill.  **  Och  ! 
Counsellor,"  he  said,  *^  I  Ve  no  way  here  to  show  your 
Honour  my  gratitude,  but  I  wish  I  saw  you  knocked 
down  in  my  own  parish,  and  wouldn't  I  bring  a  faction 
to  the  rescue  !  " 

His  indefatigable  energy  and  great  physique  enabled 
him  to  carry  on  a  gigantic  practice  hand  in  hand  with 
the  labours  of  agitation  and  the  pleasures  of  society. 
The  anecdotes  of  what  are  really  feats  of  strength  are 
many.  On  his  first  circuit  he  left  Darrynane  at  four  in 
the  morning,  reluctantly  leaving  his  brother  to  go 
coursing,  while  he  rode  for  the  assizes  and  covered  sixty 
Irish  miles  that  day.  He  went  to  a  ball  and  danced, 
danced  with  Irish  energy,  until  the  small  hours,  and, 
rising  again  at  half-past  eighty  rode  on  his  way  all  day. 
In  1829,  a  Mr.  George  Bond  Low,  a  Cork  gentleman, 
was  fired  at,  and  a  conspiracy,  called  the  '^Doneraile 
conspiracy,"  to  murder  him  and  some  other  gentlemen 
of  Doneraile,  county  Cork,  was  supposed  to  have  been 
discovered.  In  October  a  first  batch  of  prisoners  was 
tried  by  a  special  commission  at  Cork,  consisting  of 
Baron  Pennefather  and  Mr.  Justice  Torrens.  Dogherty, 
the  Solicitor- General,  was  for  the  prosecution.  O'Con- 
nell,  then  fifty-four  years  old,  was  resting  at  Darrynane, 
after  the  year  of  incessant  conflict  which  won  the  Eman- 
cipation battle,  and  he  had  declined  to  defend  the 
prisoners.  The  first  four  were  convicted.  Their  friends 
were  filled  with  panic :  in  such  a  result  they  had  been 
unable  to   believe.      O'Connell    and    O'Connell    alone 


EARLY  AND  PROFESSIONAL  LIFE.         15 

could  save  the  rest.  A  farmer  named  William  Burke 
was  despatched  post-haste  to  Darrynane,  ninety  miles 
away.  Travelling  in  Kerry  was  still  slow  and  difficult. 
The  first  four-horse  mail  from  Cork  into  Kerry  had  only 
been  run  in  August  1810 ;  the  Limerick  mail-coach  was 
a  thing  of  but  four  years'  standing.  About  thirty  years 
before,  O'Connell  had  been  four  days  in  getting  from 
Darrynane  to  Limerick,  and,  until  1839,  there  was  a 
portion  of  the  road  to  Darrynane,  five  miles  long,  so 
insecure,  that  the  horses  had  always  to  be  taken  out, 
and  the  chaises,  the  rough  conveyances  of  the  country, 
dragged  with  ropes  by  men.  Burke  arrived  early  on  a 
Sunday  morning,  and  told  O'Connell  his  tale.  The 
counsellor  said  he  would  come  to  the  rescue.  With 
only  two  hours'  rest,  Burke  set  out  again  for  Cork,  to 
prepare  relays  of  horses  along  the  road,  and  raise  the 
spirits  of  the  prisoners  and  their  friends.  O'Connell 
set  oflf  and  drove  himself  in  a  chaise  all  that  day  and 
all  the  night.  At  Macroom  he  snatched  three  or  four 
hours'  sleep,  and  at  daybreak  he  pushed  on.  The  court 
was  to  sit  at  nine  ;  the  judges  had  refused  to  delay 
the  trial  for  O'Connell's  arrival.  All  Cork  was  quiver- 
ing with  anxiety  ;  would  the  counsellor  be  there  in 
time  ?  At  length  the  watchers  descried  him  dashing 
along  the  Kerry  road  and  lashing  his  horse  as  he  came. 
The  cheer  that  went  up  from  thousands  of  throats  broke 
in  upon  the  Solicitor-General's  opening  speech/  Pushing 
through  the  crowd,  O'Connell  pulled  up  at  the  court ; 
his  horse  fell  dead  in  the  shafts.  As  be  entered  the 
court  Dogherty  turned  white,  and  the  prisoners  dared 
to  hope.  Apologising  to  the  bench,  O'Connell  took 
his  sent,  and,  snatching  a  hasty  breakfast  of  milk  and 
bread  as  he  sat  in  his  place,  plunged  into  the  case. 
The  Crown  witnesses  were  not  prepared    to  face  him. 


16  LIFE  OF  DANIEL  O'OONNELL. 

He  browbeat  the  Solicitor-G-eneral,  mimicked  his  pro- 
nunciation, and  sneered  at  his  law.  Though  the  evi- 
dence was  the  same  as  that  which  had  convicted  the 
first  batch,  the  jury,  under  the  influence  of  O'Connell's 
ascendancy,  disagreed  as  to  the  second,  and  acquitted 
the  third.  No  wonder  that  he  lived  in  the  hearts  of 
the  Munster  men,  who  had  so  often  seen  their  friends 
and  relatives  saved  by  his  skill.  The  Irish  peasantry, 
who  gave  to  O'Connell  through  a  quarter  of  a  cen- 
tury an  affection  and  obedience  which  they  have  never 
given  to  any  other  leader,  always  loved  better  than  all 
his  titles  the  name  of  ^^  the  Counsellor." 

Yet  some  of  O'ConneH's  popularity  in  his  profession 
was  won  by  discreditable  arts.  Ireland  is  a  country  in 
which  it  has  never  been  particularly  unpopular  to  attack 
a  judge  for  his  conduct  on  the  bench,  either  in  court  or 
in  the  press,  and  there  were  many  occasions  upon  which 
O'Connell,  without  censure  or  loss  of  reputation,  as- 
sailed the  court  or  his  opponents  in  language  which 
cannot  be  justified,  and  which  darkens  the  splendour  of' 
his  great  forensic  career.  It  is  one  of  the  commonplaces, 
of  Irish  history  to  say  that  at  the  beginning  of  this, 
century  the  Irish  bench  was  bigoted,  intemperate,  and 
corrupt,  the  law-officers  unscrupulous  and  ungenerous,, 
that  juries  were  packed,  and  the  well  of  justice  poi- 
soned at  the  spring.  It  is  true  that  none  but  Protestants, 
received  Crown  appointments,  and  that  promotion  from^ 
Government  posts  at  the  bar  to  a  seat  on  the  bench, 
was  the  natural  ambition  of  a  Crown  lawyer.  It  is. 
unfortunately  true  that  persons  of  inferior  capacity, 
defective  temper,  and  insufficient  learning  were  placedi 
upon  the  bench.  Such  judges  often  delivered  them-, 
selves  with  harshness  and  prejudice;  but  it  is  to  be 
remembered  that  in  England   too   at   that  time  public. 


EARLY  AND  PROFESSIONAL  LIFE.  17 

opinion  was  perfectly  tolerant  of  judicial  severity  and 
of  a  strong  leaning  in  favour  of  Government,  when 
questions  of  law  and  order  were  concerned;  and  it 
has  chiefly  heen  in  political  trials  that  the  conduct  of 
the  Irish  bench  has  been  impugned.  That  the  lists  of 
jurors  were  often  tampered  with  is  probably  but  too 
true,  and  the  two  cases  of  the  trial  of  Magee  and  of 
O'Connell  himself  are,  unhappily,  notorious  examples 
of  it;  but  this  appears  to  have  been  done  by  over- 
zealous  and  unscrupulous  underlings  in  the  various 
sheriffs'  offices.  The  Crown,  too,  made  an  habitual  use 
of  its  right  to  order  jurors  to  stand  aside  so  as  to 
exclude  Koman  Catholics  from  juries.  Now  it  is  easy 
to  see  that  the  practice  is  indefensible ;  yet  there  were 
often  grounds  then  for  fearing  that  in  particular  cases  and 
seasons  of  excitement  a  Roman  Catholic  might  not  be 
an  impartial  juror  ;  nor  is  branding  a  Dublin  Protestant 
by  the  term  of  **  Castle  tradesman  '*  enough  of  itself 
to  place  him  beyond  the  pale  of  justice  and  fair  dealing, 
O'Connell  himself  said,  before  a  Parliamentary  Com- 
mittee in  1825,  *'  In  the  Court  of  King's  Bench  every- 
thing is  done  that  one  can  wish.  I  cannot  say  that  of 
the  Court  of  Common  Pleas  or  of  the  Exchequer, 
though  there  are  individual  judges  in  both,  of  whom  I 
think  highly.  The  Court  of  Chancery  is  not  so  well, 
indeed  it  gives  no  satisfaction  at  all.  The  apprehension 
of  partiality  is  more  occasioned  by  the  kind  of  instru- 
ments that  are  used  to  bring  questions  to  trial  than  in 
the  superior  judges  themselves." 

His  conduct  in  court  was  at  times  deplorably  violent; 
at  times  improperly  crafty.  He  was  accustomed  to 
defend  himself  by  saying  that  he  found  extravagant 
language  necessary  to  awaken  the  self-respect  of  the 
down-trodden  Koman  Catholics,  and   to  persuade  them 

2 


18  LIFE  OF  DANIEL  O'CONNELL. 

that  they  too  had  rights,  and  a  champion  who  was  not 
afraid  to  assert  them.  But  the  plea  is  unavailing. 
Once  he  was  defending  a  prisoner,  who  was  being 
tried  upon  a  capital  charge.  He  saw  that  there  was 
upon  the  merits  no  defence  at  all ;  but  it  happened  that, 
in  the  absence  of  the  regular  judge  through  illness, 
Serjeant  Lefroy  sat  as  commissioner  and  tried  the  case, 
O'Connell  determined  to  practise  upon  the  fears  and 
conscientiousness  of  an  untried  and  inexperienced  judge. 
He  began  to  ask  the  witnesses  questions  which  were 
wholly  irregular  and  inadmissible.  To  these  Serjeant 
Gould,  who  appeared  for  the  Crdwn,  made  objection,  as 
he  was  in  duty  bound  to  do.  Serjeant  Lefroy,  of 
course,  allowed  the  objection.  It  was  for  this  O^Con- 
nell  had  been  playing.  He  affected  righteous  wrath, 
threw  away  his  brief,  and  crying,  *'  If  you  won't  let  me 
defend  him,  his  blood  be  on  your  head,"  flung  out  of 
court.  Lefroy  lost  his  nerve,  began  to  act  as  counsel  for 
the  prisoner,  summed  up  in  his  favour,  and  the  man  was 
acquitted.  **  I  knew,"  said  O'Connell  afterwards,  '*  the 
only  w^y  was  to  throw  the  responsibility  on  the  judge  ! " 
*'  Good  God,  my  Lord !  "  he  once  cried  at  Cork 
Assizes  to  a  judge,  who  had  employed  his  evening  after 
his  day's  work  in  refreshing  his  memory  upon  some 
point  of  law,  and  on  coming  into  court  gave  him  a 
favourable  decision,  **  If  your  lordship  had  known  as 
much  law  yesterday  morning  as  you  do  this,  what  an 
idle  sacrifice  of  time  and  trouble  would  you  not  have 
saved  me,  and  an  injury  and  injustice  to  my  client !  " 

On  another  occasion,  during  a  motion  for  a  new  trial, 
counsel  called  on  a  young  Kerry  lawyer,  who  was  attorney 
on  the  other  side,  to  produce  some  document  or  make 
some  admission.  O'Connell,  who  chanced  to  be  in  court, 
but,  for  aught  that  appears,  knew  nothing  whatever  of 


EABLY  AND  PROFESSIONAL  LIFE.  19 

the  rights  and  wrongs  of  the  case,  and  had  nothing  to 
do  with  it,  stood  up  in  court  and  told  the  attorney  to 
refuse.  Baron  McClellan,  one  of  the  judges  on  the 
bench,  asked  him  if  he  had  a  brief  in  the  case.  **No, 
my  Lord,"  said  OTonnell,  '*  I  have  not,  but  I  will 
have  when  the  case  goes  down  to  the  assizes.'*  **  When 
I  was  at  the  bar,'^  said  the  judge,  **  it  was  not  my  habit 
to  anticipate  briefs.'*  **  When  you  were  at  the  bar," 
cried  O'Connell,  "  I  never  chose  you  for  a  model,  and 
now  that  you  are  on  the  bench  I  shall  not  submit  to 
your  dictation."  ** Leaving  his  lordship  to  digest  this 
retort,"  says  O^Conneirs  admiring  biographer,  **he  took 
the  attorney  by  the  arm  and  walked  him  out  of  court. 
In  this  way  he  dealt  with  hostile  judges."  It  is  to  be 
hoped  that  this  vigorous  effort  was  rewarded  with  the 
expected  brief,  but  the  tone  employed  to  the  judge  was 
one  which,  as  the  story  has  it,  *'  would  be  offensive 
from  its  Maker  to  a  black  beetle." 

Saurin,  the  Attorney-General,  one  of  the  most  dis- 
tinguished of  lawyers,  was  the  object  of  O'Conneirs 
peculiar  animosity,  and  what  took  place  between  them 
upon  the  trial  of  Magee  in  1813  is  remarkable.  Some 
time  after  the  verdict,  on  November  27th,  the  Attor- 
ney-General moved  the  King's  Bench  in  aggravation 
of  the  sentence  upon  Magee,  upon  the  grounds  of 
the  line  of  defence  adopted  by  O'Connell  at  the  trial, 
and  of  the  subsequent  proceedings  of  the  defendant. 
O'Connell  chose  to  take  umbrage  at  one  of  Saurin's 
expressions,  and  proceeded  thus  : — 

Even  here  do  I  yield  in  nothing  to  the  Attorney-General.  I  deny  in 
the  strongest  terms  his  unfounded  and  absurd  claim  to  saporiority.  I 
am  hin  oqual  at  least  in  birth,  his  equal  in  fortune,  his  equal  certainly 
in  oducatioti,  and  an  to  talent  I  should  not  add  that,  but  thero  is  littU 
Yftuity  iu  claiming  equality.   ...   I  do  most  sincorely  rejoice  that  th« 

2  • 


20  LIFE  OF  DANIEL  O'GONNELL. 

Attorney-General  has  prudently  treasured  up  his  resentment  since 
July  last,  and  ventured  to  address  me  in  this  court  in  the  unhandsome 
language  he  has  used,  because  my  profound  respect  for  this  temple  of 
the  law  enables  me  here  to  overcome  the  infirmity  of  my  nature  and 
to  listen  with  patience  to  an  attack  which,  had  it  been  made  else- 
where, would  have  met  merited  chastisement. 

*  *  *  *  * 

Mr.  Justice  Osborne. — I  will  take  the  opinion  of  the  court  whether 
you  shall  not  be  committed. 

The  Chief  Justice. — If  you  pursue  that  line  of  language  we  must 
call  upon  some  other  counsel  upon  the  same  side  to  proceed. 

Mr.  Justice  Day. — Now,  Mr.  O'Connell,  do  you  not  perceive  that 
while  you  talk  of  suppressing  those  feelings  you  are  actually  indulg- 
ing them.  The  Attorney- General  could  not  mean  you  offence  in  the 
line  of  argument  he  pursued  to  enhance  the  punishment  in  every  way 
of  your  client.  It  is  unnecessary  for  you  to  throw  off  or  to  repel  as- 
persions that  are  not  made  on  you. 

Mr.  O'Connell. —  .  .  .  What  did  he  mean  when  he  imputed  to  the 
advocate  participation  in  the  crime  of  the  client  ?  This  he  distinctly 
charged  me  with. 

Mr.  Justice  Day. — You  shall  have  the  same  liberty  that  he  had, 
but  the  Court  did  not  understand  him  to  have  made  any  personal 
attack  upon  you. 

Mr.  Justice  Osborne. — We  did  not  understand  that  the  Attorney- 
General  meant  you,  when  he  talked  of  a  participator  in  the  crime  of 
your  client. 

The  Attorney- General. — I  did  not,  my  lords;  I  certainly  did  not 
mean  the  gentleman. 

Mr.  O^Connell. — Well,  my  lords,  be  it  so.  ...  I  am  therefor© 
enabled  at  once  to  go  into  the  merits  of  my  client's  case. 

It  may  be  that  during  the  whole  course  of  this  case 
the  air  was  so  electric,  that  O'Connell  really  had  sup- 
posed that  something  had  passed  which  he  ought  to 
resent,  but  the  affair  had  very  much  the  air  of  a  piece 
of  factitious  indignation.  The  end  of  O'Conneirs 
speech  rather  confirms  this  impression.  As  Curran 
had  once  done  to  Lord  Clare,  he  attacked  both  the 
Attorney- General  and  the  Bench  by  drawing  his  own 
portraits  of  them  to  their  faces  in  the  blackest  colours, 
and  speculating  what  his  course  would  have  been,  had 


FABLY  AND  PE0FE8SI0NAL  LIFE,         21 

those  been  his  opponents  and  judges,  and  not  the  ad- 
mirable persons  he  saw  before  him.  Of  Saurin  he 
spoke  in  this  hypothetical  way  as  *'  some  creature,  nar- 
row-minded, mean,  calumnious,  of  inveterate  bigotry 
and  dastard  disposition  .  .  .  whose  virulence  will  ex- 
plode by  the  force  of  the  fermentation  of  its  own  pu- 
trefaction, and  throw  forth  its  filthy  and  disgusting 
stores  to  blacken  those  whom  he  would  not  venture 
directly  to  attack."  Having  regard  to  the  nature  of 
the  motion  before  the  court  and  to  the  grounds  of  it,  one 
does  not  wonder  that  at  the  close  of  this  speech, 
O'Connell's  own  junior  rose,  and  on  behalf  of  his  client 
Magee,  repudiated  his  leader's  language. 


22  LIFE  OF  DANIEL  O'CONNELL. 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE    SECURITIES    CONTROVERSY. 
1800-1813. 

Position  of  the  Catholic  movement — Leadership  of  John  Keogh — The 
period  of  "  dignified  silence  " — The  Veto — The  Catholic  Board — 
Grattan's  Bill  of  1813 — Quarantotti's  rescript — Collapse  of  the 
Catholic  party. 

In  1800,  the  movement  for  Catholic  Relief,  which  had 
begun  about  1760  and  culminated  in  1793,  was  in  a 
state  of  profound  quiescence,  almost  of  torpor.  The 
Catholic  party,  thankful  for  what  it  had  won  and  fearful 
of  collision  with  the  Government,  was  without  policy  or 
organization  and  almost  without  leaders.  In  that  con- 
dition it  remained  for  several  years,  and  when  it  again 
became  active  it  had  new  leaders,  new  methods,  and  a 
goal  so  different  as  to  be  hardly  any  longer  the  same.  This 
comprehensive  change  was  the  work  of  O'Oonnell.  From 
the  fall  of  Limerick  to  the  Declaration  of  American 
Independence  the  Irish  Roman  Catholics  had  groaned 
under  a  penal  code  of  terrible  rigour.  Enacted  for  the 
most  part  in  the  reigns  of  William  III.  and  of  Anne, 
something  had  been  added  to  its  severity  under  every 
succeeding  Sovereign.     For  nearly  a  hundred  years  Ire- 


THE  SECURITIES  C0NTB0VEB8Y,  23 

land  caused  EnglaDd  neither  anxiety  nor  solicitude. 
The  Cromwellian  policy  had  been  to  exterminate  the 
Koman  Catholics,  and  had  failed.  The  Penal  Code 
sought  by  heaping  up  disabilities  to  reduce  them  to 
political  insignificance  and  impotence,  and  to  such 
justification  as  success  can  give  that  policy  was  en- 
titled. It  was  not  until  England  found  herself  sur- 
rounded by  imminent  perils  from  without,  that  the 
first  part  of  the  Code  was  abrogated,  nor  until  the 
best  public  opinion  of  England  could  no  longer  tolerate 
such  laws  that  the  second  part  was  swept  away.  The 
aim  of  the  penal  laws  was  to  make  and  keep  the 
Koman  Catholics  weak,  disunited,  ignorant,  and  fearful, 
and  so  long  as  those  laws  were  enforced  in  their  entirety 
they  succeeded  in  that  dark  endeavour.  Long  after 
their  worst  severities  had  been  relaxed  O'Connell  was 
accustomed  to  say,  that  you  could  tell  a  Roman  Catholic 
in  the  street  by  his  hesitating  gait,  his  timid  carriage, 
and  his  demeanour  of  conscious  inferiority.  The  evil 
eflfects  of  the  disabilities  long  survived  their  repeal. 

Still,  during  the  latter  half  of  the  eighteenth  century 
the  lot  of  the  Irish  Roman  Catholic  had  been  greatly 
improved,  until  indeed  in  1800  it  was  better  than  that 
of  his  English  co-religionist.  The  movement  first 
began  among  the  Catholic  aristocracy  and  gentry.  In 
1760  the  first  General  Association  of  Catholics  of  Ire- 
land was  formed,  and  in  1776  their  position  was  enor- 
mously changed  for  the  better  by  the  repeal  of  several 
Acts,  which  disabled  Roman  Catholics  from  being 
owners  of  land. 

But  the  Catholic  gentry  were  jealous  of  the  Catholic 
merchants,  and  when  the  outbreak  of  the  French  Revo- 
lution was  greeted  by  the  latter  with  enthusiasm  and 
hope,  the  leaders  of  the  former  seceded  in  a  body  from 


24  LIFE  OF  DANIEL  O'CONNELL. 

the  organization.  The  blow  to  the  Catholic  cause 
seemed  paralysing,  but  it  was  in  fact  a  fortunate  event. 
It  threw  the  leadership  into  the  hands  of  a  man  of  talent 
and  force,  John  Keogh  of  Mount  Jerome.  Keogh,  without 
any  gifts  of  oratory  or  grace  of  manner,  was  typical  of  his 
class,  a  merchant  of  rough  force  and  direct  insight,  who 
combined  daring  with  caution,  and  possessed  an  instinc- 
tive comprehension  of  the  means  at  his  disposal,  the  goal 
to  which  they  could  carry  him,  and  the  right  tactics  for 
success.  For  twenty  years  he  remained  the  leader  of 
the  movement.  In  1791  he  went  to  London,  alone 
and  at  his  own  charges,  saw  Burke,  was  by  him 
introduced  to  Henry  Dundas,  and  by  his  plain  but 
adroit  diplomacy,  persuaded  the  Minister  of  the  wis- 
dom of  listening  to  the  prayer  of  the  Irish  Catholics. 
By  direction  of  the  English  Ministry  a  Bill  was  intro- 
duced into  the  Irish  Parliament  and  passed,  which 
opened  to  the  Catholics  the  bar,  removed  the  remaining 
restrictions  on  education,  and  repealed  the  Intermarriage 
Act.  Returning  to  Ireland,  Keogh  undertook,  with  the 
assistance  of  Wolfe  Tone,  a  personal  propaganda 
throughout  the  country,  and  procured  the  appointment 
of  upwards  of  two  hundred  delegates,  who  assembled  in 
Dublin  in  a  convention,  which  was  nicknamed  from  its 
place  of  meeting  the  "Back  Lane  Parliament."  The 
Convention  appointed  a  deputation  of  five,  of  whom 
Keogh  was  one,  to  wait  upon  the  King  and  present 
their  petition.  They  crossed  the  Channel,  were  gra- 
ciously received  by  His  Majesty,  and  had  an  inter- 
view with  Pitt.  O'Connell,  who  had  but  scant  respect 
for  Keogh,  long  afterwards  charged  him  with  having  on 
this  occasion,  in  efi*ect,  ruined  the  Catholic  cause,  for 
he  was  sent  to  demand  equality  with  Protestants  and 
allowed  Pitt  to  cajole  him  into   accepting  the  munioi- 


THE  SECVEITIE8  CONTROVERSY.  2S 

palities  and  the  franchise.  But  having  regard  to  Keogh*s 
character,  to  the  circumstances  of  the  tim^,  and  to  the 
magnitude  of  his  achievement,  it  may  be  well  doubted  if 
more  could  have  been  hoped  for  than  Keogh  got.  At 
the  instance  of  the  English  Ministry,  a  bill  was  intro- 
duced into  the  Irish  House  of  Commons,  and  ultimately 
passed,  which  in  point  of  legislative  change  did  more 
for  the  Roman  Catholics  than  Kenmare  did  in  1776  or 
O'Connell  in  1829.  It  opened  to  them  the  magis- 
tracy, the  grand  juries,  the  military  forces,  and  the 
municipalities ;  it  relieved  them  from  most  of  the  re- 
maining  private  disabilities,  penalties,  and  forfeitures, 
and,  much  against  the  wish  of  the  Protestant  members 
and  even  of  the  Catholic  nobility,  it  admitted  them  to  the 
electoral  franchise.  They  remained  excluded  only  from 
Parliament,  and  a  few  of  the  highest  military  and  civil 
posts.  The  qualification  for  the  franchise  was  fixed  at 
a  freehold  interest  of  the  nominal  value  of  40s.,  and,  as 
a  leasehold  interest  for  life  was  held  to  confer  the  fran- 
chise, vast  multitudes  of  Roman  Catholic  peasants  ob- 
tained it.  But  the  vote  of  the  tenant  was  regarded  as 
the  landlord's  property  by  unquestioned  right.  It  was 
a  common  thing  for  the  tenants  to  be  driven  up  ia 
flocks  to  the  poll  like  sheep,  to  vote  as  their  landlord 
directed ;  and  the  gentry  and  nobility  of  Ireland,  purely 
to  increase  their  own  political  importance,  set  them- 
selves to  manufacture  freeholders  upon  a  gigantic  scale. 
Innumerable  small  holdings  were  created,  no  matter  at 
what  cost  of  sub-division  of  tenancies  and  increase  of  a 
pauper  population,  and  leases  for  lives  were  granted  of 
the  requisite  annual  value,  but  determinable  on  non- 
payment of  rent,  which,  to  preserve  the  landlord's  control, 
was  deliberately  kept  in  arrear  far  beyond  the  peasant's 
ability  to  pay  on  demand.     This  class  of  voters  had 


26  LIFE  OF  DANIEL  O'CONNELL. 

neither  education  nor  independence.  A  tenant  who 
disregarded  his  landlord's  direction  at  the  poll,  was 
promptly  called  upon  to  pay  his  arrears  of  rent,  and  on 
his  inevitable  failure  to  perform  that  impossible  task,  he 
forfeited  his  lease,  his  holding,  and  his  vote.  Both 
socially  and  economically  the  system  did  irreparable 
harm  to  the  tenantry,  and  unhappily  it  endured  long 
enough  to  effect  the  whole  of  its  mischief.  It  was 
not  for  thirty-five  years  that  the  revolt  of  the  peasant 
against  his  landlord  came,  and  when  it  came,  O'Connell 
was  the  author  of  it. 

From  1793  to  1800,  the  Catholics  attempted  little  and 
effected  nothing.  They  saw  that  from  Grattan's  Par- 
liament they  had  little  to  hope ;  it  was  to  the  English 
Parliament  that  they  had  to  look.  In  the  negotia- 
tions for  the  incorporating  union,  distinct  promises 
of  emancipation  were  made  to  the  Koman  Catholics, 
and  distinct  support  was  given  in  return.  But  when 
the  Act  of  Union  passed,  and  the  time  came  for  satis- 
fying the  hopes  that  had  been  excited,  Pitt,  in  whose 
scheme  Catholic  Emancipation  was  an  integral  part, 
found  that  he  had  not  sufficiently  reckoned  with 
the  opposing  force  of  the  King's  crazy  conscien- 
tiousness, and  the  intriguing  resistance  of  the  high 
Tory  lords.  The  Eoman  Catholics  were  left  with  the 
feeling  that  they  had  been  baulked  of  their  hopes,  and 
•even  defrauded  of  their  rights.  For  peaceful  persuasion 
and  influence  the  Imperial  Parliament  seemed  both  too 
distant  and  too  ignorant;  rebellion  after  rebellion, 
begun  in  folly  and  quenched  in  blood,  had  proved  that 
there  was  no  hope  for  them  in  force,  and  the  time  was 
still  a  generation  distant  when  O'Connell  could  shew 
them  that  it  was  possible  for  the  English  legislature  to 
be  terrorised  without  insurrection,  and  for  the  unarmed 


THE  SECURITIES  CONTBOVEBSY.  27 

Irish  to  extort  by   threats  what  persuasion  could  not 
obtain. 

For  some  years  their  leaders,  alike  Keogh  for  the  mer- 
chant middle  class,  and  Lord  Fingal  for  the  aristocracy, 
were  content  to  advise  an  attitude  of  "  dignified  silence." 
Much  had  been  gained  in  the  previous  twenty  years. 
The  legal  position  of  the  Irish  Catholics  compared 
favourably  with  that  of  Catholics  or  of  Protestant  Dis- 
senters in  England.  Among  them  the  franchise  was  so 
profusely  distributed,  that  with  less  than  one-fiftieth  of 
the  real  estate  of  Ireland  they  had  a  clear  majority  of 
YOtes  in  the  counties.  The  magistracy,  the  grand  juries, 
and  the  bar,  though  not  the  bench,  were  open  to  them. 
With  the  exception  of  some  thirty  of  the  highest  posts, 
they  could  enter  both  the  civil  and  military  services  of 
the  Crown.  They  were  eligible  for  university  degrees,  and 
for  admission  to  corporations.  In  England,  on  the 
other  hand,  the  Test  and  Corporation  Acts  were  still 
unrepealed.  A  Catholic  could  neither  take  a  degree 
nor  be  an  alderman.  In  the  army  he  could  rise  no 
higher  than  the  grade  of  a  lieutenant ;  he  was  ineligible 
for  civil  office,  and  was  excluded  from  the  franchise.  It 
is  true  that  these  privileges,  which  were  theirs  in  law, 
were  but  little,  if  at  all,  open  to  the  Irish  Catholics  in 
fact;  but  their  inferiority  to  the  Protestants  was 
nothing  in  comparison  with  their  superiority  to  the  posi- 
tion which  their  own  fathers  had  held,  and  for  a  time 
they  were  disposed  to  be  passive,  and  to  acquiesce 
in  the  policy  of  Keogh.  0*Connell,  occupied  in  found- 
ing his  practice  at  the  bar,  accepted  this  state  of 
things;  but  presently  the  Catholics  began  to  move,  and 
he  was  among  the  earliest  of  the  baind  of  barristers 
who  attended  all  the  meetings,  and  took  a  lively 
interest  in   the   course   pursued.      In  1805  a  meeting 


28  LIFE  OF  DANIEL  0' CON  NELL, 

assembled,  but  timorously  rejected  a  proposal  to  peti- 
tion for  the  admission  of  Catholics  to  Parliament  by 
336  to  124,  and  although  Keogh  talked  of  forming- 
another  General  Committee,  nothing  came  of  it.  In 
February  1806  the  Talents  Administration  came  in,  and 
in  April  the  new  Lord  Lieutenant,  the  Duke  of  Bedford^ 
arrived  in  Ireland.  On  the  8th  of  the  month  a  meeting^ 
was  held,  at  which  a  vague  association  was  formed,  which^ 
through  fear  of  the  Convention  Act  of  1793,  took  no  defi- 
nite shape.  The  Duke  of  Bedford  promised,  on  behalf  of 
the  Prince  of  Wales,  that  he  would  admit  the  Roman 
Catholic  claims  whenever  he  should  be  in  a  position  to 
do  so,  and  the  same  promise  seems  to  have  been  given 
personally  by  the  Prince  to  Lords  Fingal,  Petre,  and 
Clifden  at  Carlton  House.  Keogh,  however,  was  not 
entirely  satisfied,  and  a  speech  of  his  at  a  meeting  on 
24th  January  1807  expressed  such  a  determined  attitude 
that  it  was  reported  to  the  King,  and  was  not  without  its 
influence  in  inducing  him  to  refuse  his  assent  to  Lord 
Howick's  Relief  Bill.  The  Catholics  saw  their  Whig 
friends,  Grenville  and  Howick,  fall  in  1807,  as  they  had 
seen  their  Tory  allies,  Pitt  and  Canning,  fall  in  1801,  in 
a  vain  effort  for  the  Catholic  cause.  From  this  time 
O'Connell  became  convinced  that  it  was  not  by  soft 
words,  or  by  deferentially  forbearing  to  advance  incon- 
venient claims,  that  these  claims  would  meet  with  a  just 
recognition. 

To  the  "natural  leaders,"  however,  of  the  Catholics, 
the  nobility  and  the  old-fashioned  merchants,  O'Connell 
seemed  a  turbulent  and  importunate  young  man,  and 
their  movement  continued  to  follow  the  same  timorous 
course.  Their  business  was  managed  by  committees 
appointed  by  aggregate  meetings,  cautiously  summoned 
for  that  purpose  and  immediately  dissolved.     A  kind  of 


THE  SECURITIES  CONTBOVEBSY.  29 

representative  organization  was  attempted  in  1807,  when 
delegates  were  summoned  from  several  Dublin  parishes ; 
but  on  April  18th  of  that  year  a  meeting  was  held  at 
which  the  Catholic  petition  was  withdrawn,  and  the 
association  dissolved.  Nor  did  any  definite  result  follow 
from  the  meeting  held  in  January  1808.  At  last,  largely 
at  the  instance  of  O^Connell,  a  numerous  meeting  was 
held  on  the  24th  May  1809  at  the  Exhibition  Room  in 
William  Street,  Dublin,  and  a  permanent  organization 
was  adopted.  It  was  formed  from  the  remaining 
members  of  the  delegation  of  1792,  and  of  the  '*  thirty- 
six  addressers,"  and  was  really,  if  not  in  form,  a  repre- 
sentative body.  This  Committee  met  on  November  the 
8th,  decided  to  present  a  petition  to  Parliament,  and 
appointed  a  sub-committee  to  prepare  it.  The  move- 
ment had  now  a  ttoO  o-tw,  and  proceeded  continuously, 
and  meetings  of  the  General  Committee  were  held  from 
time  to  time  during  1809  and  1810.  In  1810  its  scope 
was  extended  by  a  resolution  to  form  local  boards  or 
committees  in  connection  with  it,  but  nothing  more 
was  done  than  to  hold  occasional  local  meetings, 
chiefly  in  the  southern  counties,  during  the  Munster 
Assizes.  These  meetings  mark  the  growing  influence 
of  O'Connell  and  the  other  Catholic  barristers,  men 
who  brought  to  the  cause  the  prestige  of  their  pro- 
fession, with  easy  eloquence,  business-like  habits  of 
speaking,  and  the  art  of  presenting  a  case  in  a  broad 
and  tolling  way,  but  also  its  disadvantages,  a  tendency 
to  quibbles  and  to  chicane,  and  a  proneness  to  debate 
trifles  till  the  main  object  was  lost  sight  of.  At  the 
various  meetings  0*Connell  was  an  indefatigable  atten- 
dant and  speaker.  Two  of  the  resolutions  of  the 
meeting  of  May  1809  were  proposed  by  him.  To  bim 
fell  most  of  the  work  of  drafting  resolutions ;  and  the 


30  LIFE  OF  DANIEL  O'CONNELL. 

Report  on  the  Penal  Code,  a  work  of  much  elaboration 
and  research,  which  was  principally  prepared  by  Scully 
for  the  Catholic  Committee,  was  in  part  O'Connell's 
work.  Keogh  was  now  living  in  a  retired  but  respect- 
able old  age  at  Mount  Jerome.  The  principal  peer& 
who  led  the  Catholics  were  Lord  Fingal,  Lord  French, 
Lord  Trimleston,  and  Lord  Gormanstown.  But  the 
business  of  the  organization  was  done  in  committees, 
and  there  the  leadership  naturally  fell  into  the  hands  of 
the  barristers.  For  a  time  the  chief  of  these  was  James 
Scully,  nicknamed  the  Abb6  Sieyes,  a  man  of  a  sardonic 
and  scheming  turn,  without  any  gift  of  oratory,  who 
preferred  to  gain  his  ends  by  Machiavellian  diplomacy 
rather  than  by  open  agitation.  While  keeping  himself 
studiously  in  the  background,  he  was,  in  fact,  for  a  time 
the  most  influential  man  in  the  body.  Prominent  men 
also  were  Hussey  and  Clinch,  members  of  the  bar,  and 
Dr.  Dromgoole,  *'  the  Duigenan  of  the  Catholic  cause,'* 
an  implacable  and  impracticable  bigot,  saturated  with 
mediaeval  theology,  and  unable  to  perceive  that  he  was 
living  in  the  nineteenth,  and  not  in  the  fourteenth 
century.  But  gradually  the  untiring  energy,  the  self- 
devotion,  the  legal  acumen,  and  the  eloquence  of 
O'Connell,  brought  him  more  and  more  to  the  front,  till 
by  the  beginning  of  1811  his  leadership  was  virtually 
established.  He  would  stand  on  the  Carlisle  Bridge 
accosting  Roman  Catholic  passers-by,  and  pressing 
them  to  come  into  the  meeting  at  the  adjacent  Exchange 
Rooms,  which  were  taken  for  the  purpose  in  his  name. 

For  more  than  twenty  years  before  Emancipation  [says  his  Letter  to 
Lord  Shrewsbury]  the  burthen  of  the  cause  was  thrown  on  me.  I  had 
to  arrange  the  meetings,  to  prepare  the  resolutions,  to  furnish  replies  to 
the  correspondence,  to  examine  the  case  of  each  person  complaining  of 
practical  grievances. ...  At  a  period  when  my  minutes  counted  by  the 


THE  SECURITIES  CONTROVERSY.  31 

guinea,  when  my  emoluments  were  limited  only  by  the  extent  of  my  phy- 
sical and  waking  powers,  when  mj^  meals  were  shortened  to  the  narrowest 
space,  and  my  sleep  restricted  to  the  earliest  hours  before  dawn,  at  that 
period,  and  for  more  than  twenty  years,  there  was  no  day  that  I  did  not 
devote  from  one  to  two  hours,  often  much  more,  to  the  working  out 
of  the  Catholic  cause,  and  that  without  receiving  or  allowing  the  offer 
of  any  remuneration,  even  for  the  personal  expenditure  incurred  in 
the  agitation  of  the  cause  itself.  For  four  years  I  bore  the  entire 
expenses  of  Catholic  agitation  without  receiving  the  contributions  of 
others  to  a  greater  amount  than  £74  in  the  whole. 


A  man  of  this  calibre  could  not  have  been  passed 
over,  but  O'Connell,  who  was  never  tolerant  of  a  rival, 
forced  his  way  to  the  front  in  a  way  that  showed  little 
respect  or  reverence  for  the  age  and  services  of  the 
leader  whom  he  was  ousting.  Long  afterwards,  when 
he  was  himself  ripe  in  age  and  service,  and  in  his  turn 
had  young  men  about  him  impatient  of  his  cautious 
policy,  he  told  Daunt — 

Keogh  saw  that  I  was  calculated  to  become  a  leader.  .  .  .  The 
course  he  then  recommended  was  a  sullen  quiescence.  He  urged  that 
the  Catholics  should  abstain  altogether  from  agitation,  and  he 
laboured  hard  to  bring  me  to  his  views.  But  I  saw  that  agitation  was 
our  only  available  weapon.  ...  I  saw  that  by  incessantly  keeping 
our  demands  and  our  grievances  before  the  public  and  the  Govern- 
ment, we  must  sooner  or  later  succeed.  Moreover,  that  period  aboye 
all  others  was  not  one  at  which  our  legitimate  weapon,  agitation,  could 
have  boon  prudently  let  to  rust.  It  was  during  the  war,  and  while 
Napoleon,  that  splendid  madman,  made  the  Catholics  of  Ireland  so 
essential  to  the  military  defence  of  the  Empire,  the  time  seemed 
peculiarly  appropriate  to  press  our  claims.  About  that  period  a  great 
Catholic  meeting  was  held.  .  .  .  Keogh  drew  np  a  resolution,  which 
denounced  the  continued  agitation  of  the  Catholic  question  at  that 
time.  This  resolution,  proceeding  as  it  did  from  a  tried  old  leader, 
was  carried.  I  then  rose  and  proposed  a  counter-resolution,  pledging 
ns  all  to  incessant,  onrelaxing  agitation  ;  and  such  were  the  wiseacres 
with  whom  I  had  to  deal,  that  they  passed  my  resolution  in  the 
midst  of  enthusiastic  acclamations.  .  .  .  Thenceforward,  I  may  say,  1 
was  Me  loader. 


22  LIFE  OF  DANIEL  O'CONNELL, 

In  O'Connell's  hands,  and  conducted  upon  these 
principles,  the  agitation  became  so  considerable  that 
the  Government  was  no  longer  able  to  ignore  it.  The 
Catholics  were  shrewdly  advised,  but  at  last  they  made 
a  false  step.  Till  the  summer  of  1809  the  meetings  had 
cautiously  passed  formal  resolutions  disclaiming  any 
representative  or  delegated  character.  Then,  growing 
bolder,  they  dropped  them.  In  the  beginning  of  1811, 
upon  the  advice  of  O'Connell  that  such  a  proceeding 
was  legal,  Hay,  their  secretary,  issued  a  circular  calling 
on  every  county  to  elect  delegates  to  the  association  in 
Dublin.  Clare's  Convention  Act  of  1793  was  ready  to 
the  Lord  Lieutenant's  hand.  On  February  12th  the 
Chief  Secretary  issued  a  letter  to  all  magistrates,  calling 
on  them  to  arrest  all  persons  advocating  or  taking  part 
in  any  such  election.  On  February  23rd,  Darby,  a  police 
magistrate,  appeared  at  a  meeting  of  the  Committee, 
and  called  on  those  present  to  disperse,  but  after  a 
quibbling  discussion  he  withdrew.  Another  attempt  of 
the  same  kind  was  made  on  July  9th.  On  August  12th 
two  leading  delegates,  Taafe,  a  banker,  and  Kirwan,  a 
merchant,  were  arrested,  and  a  warrant  was  issued  against 
Dr.  Sheridan.  On  October  19th  a  new  Catholic  committee 
met,  composed,  in  defiance  of  the  Government,  of  elected 
delegates,  ten  from  every  county,  and  was  required  to 
disperse  by  a  police  magistrate  named  Hare.  On 
November  23rd  its  meeting  was  actually  broken  up,  and 
the  Catholics  thought  it  wise  to  dissolve  their  com- 
mittee. On  December  26th  they  met  and  elected  a  non- 
represeutative  Catholic  Board.  This  was  an  admission 
of  defeat.  The  first  of  the  prisoners.  Dr.  Sheridan,  had 
already  been  tried  and  acquitted  on  November  22nd,  but 
on  January  30th  1812,  Kirwan  was  found  guilty, 
though  no  sentence    was   passed   upon    him ;   and    the 


THE  SECURITIES  CONTBOVEBSY.  33 

action  for  false  imprisonment,  which  on  Sheridan's 
acquittal  had  been  brought  against  Chief  Justice 
Downes,  who  had  issued  the  warrants,  resulted  in  the 
defendant's  favour.  The  Government  was  master  of  the 
field.  The  Catholics  had  to  content  themselves  witli 
holding  occasional  meetings  in  the  country  to  protest 
against  the  blow. 

To  O'Connell  and  the  Catholics  no  statesman  was  so 
hateful  as  Mr.  Perceval.  In  October  1810  George  III. 
relapsed  into  insanity,  and  in  February  1811  the  Prince 
of  Wales  became  Prince  Regent,  but  under  considerable 
restrictions.  These  expired  in  February  1812,  and  it 
was  thought  that  the  Prince  would  indulge  his  Whig 
proclivities  by  dismissing  his  Tory  Ministers.  To  the 
Catholics  he  had  made  many  promises,  and  they  looked 
now  with  painful  anxiety  for  their  fulfilment.  The 
Prince  made  no  sign  ;  Perceval  remained  in  office.  On 
the  11th  May,  Perceval  was  shot  in  the  lobby  of  the 
House  of  Commons,  by  a  crazy  tradesman  named  Bel- 
lingham.  Again  the  Prince  forgot  his  promises.  The 
influence  of  the  Hertford  family  in  the  royal  closet  was 
a  fatal  obstacle  to  the  assumption  of  office  by  Gren- 
ville  and  Grey,  and  Perceval's  colleagues  continued 
to  carry  out  Perceval's  policy.  The  mortified  Catho- 
lics, with  O'Connell  at  their  head,  fell  into  a  childisli 
pet  of  rage.  Perceval  had  hardly  been  in  his  grave  a 
month  when  O'Connell  was  saying  of  him  : — 

For  my  ))Hrt,  I  fool  uiialToctod  horror  at  his  fate,  and  i\\\  traoo  of 
rosentmont  for  his  criinoH  is  obliterated  ;  but  I  do  not  forgot  that  ho 
was  a  narrow-minded  bigot,  a  paltry  statesman,  and  a  bad  minister  ; 
that  every  species  of  public  corruption  and  profligacy  had  in  him  a 
flippant  and  port  ndvooato  ;  that  every  advance  towards  reform  or 
-economy  had  in  him  a  decided  enemy ;  and  that  the  liberties  of  th« 
])Ooplo  were  the  object  of  his  derision. 

3 


34  LIFE  OF  DANIEL  O'CONNELL. 

At  this  meeting,  18th  June  1812,  the  Catholics  passed 
these  impolitic  and  impotent  resolutions  : — 

That  from  authentic  documents  now  before  us  we  learn  with  deep 
disappointment  and  anguish  how  cruelly  the  promised  boon  of  Catholic 
freedom  has  been  intercepted  by  the  fatal  witchery  of  an  unworthy 
secret  influence,  hostile  to  our  fairest  hopes,  spurning  alike  the  sanc- 
tions of  public  and  private  virtue,  the  demands  of  personal  gratitude, 
and  the  sacred  obligations  of  plighted  honour. 

That  to  this  impure  source  we  trace  but  too  distinctly  our  afflicted 
hopes  and  protracted  servitude,  the  arrogant  invasion  of  the  un- 
doubted right  of  petitioning,  the  acrimony  of  illegal  State  prosecu- 
tions, the  surrender  of  Ireland  to  prolonged  oppression  and  insult, 
and  the  many  experiments  equally  pitiful  and  perilous,  recently 
practised  upon  the  habitual  passiveness  of  an  ill-treated  but  high- 
spirited  people. 

The  Catholics  must  have  heen  simple  indeed,  and 
ignorant  of  the  movements  of  the  parties  of  their  times, 
if  they  thought  that  it  needed  any  **  secret  influence  " 
but  that  of  his  own  convenience  to  make  the  Prince 
break  his  word,  or  that  nothing  prevented  instant 
Emancipation  but  the  religious  scruples  of  a  royal 
favourite. 

But  while  the  Catholics  conducted  their  agitation 
thus  openly  in  Ireland,  they  had  left  the  conduct  of  their 
interest  in  Parliament  in  the  hands  of  Lord  Grenville 
and  Mr.  Grattan.  To  Keogh,  and  afterwards  to  Lord 
Fingal,  it  was  left  to  keep  up  such  communication  as 
they  thought  fit  between  the  parliamentary  advocates 
of  Emancipation  and  the  Irish  party ;  and  this  method 
of  procedure  by  semi-secret  diplomacy  led  to  dissen- 
sion and  disaster.  Pitt's  intention  had  been  to  deal 
with  the  Irish  Catholics  in  a  liberal  spirit.  His  plan 
seems  to  have  been  first  generally  made  known  by 
Castlereagli  in  a  speech  in  the  House  of  Commons  on 
25th  May  1810.     *'  He  had  been  authorised/*  he  said, 


THE  SECURITIES  CONTROVERSY,  35 

**  to  communicate  with  the  Catholic  clergy.  It  was  then 
distinctly  understood  that  the  political  claims  of  the 
Catholics  must  remain  for  the  consideration  of  the  Im- 
perial Parliament,  hut  the  expediency  of  making  with- 
out delay  some  provision  for  their  clergy  under  proper 
regulations  was  fully  recognised.  The  result  of  their 
deliherations  was  laid  before  Government  in  certain 
resolutions  signed  by  ten  of  their  bishops,  including  the 
four  metropolitans,  in  January  1799."  The  bishops 
had  met  in  Dublin  on  January  17th,  18th,  and  J9tb, 
1799,  and  their  resolutions  were : — 

That  a  provision,  through  Government,  for  the  Roman  Catholic  clei-gy 
of  this  kingdom,  competent  and  secured,  ought  to  be  thankfully 
accepted ;  [and  that]  in  the  appointment  of  prelates  of  the  Roman 
Catholic  religion  to  vacant  sees  within  the  kingdom,  such  interference 
of  the  Government  as  may  enable  it  to  be  satisfied  of  the  loyalty  of  the 
persons  appointed,  is  just  and  ought  to  be  agreed  to. 

They  went  on  to  suggest  that  this  interference 
might  be  provided  for  by  sending  to  the  Govern- 
ment the  names  of  those  persons  whom  the  Catholic 
clergy  had  selected  for  submission  to  the  Pope,  which 
the  Government,  if  satisfied  with  them,  might  there- 
upon forward  to  Home,  or,  if  not,  return  to  Ireland. 

For  several  years  this  idea  had  been  at  rest,  but  in  1808 
Grattan  and  Ponsonby,  anxious  in  bringing  on  again 
the  question  of  the  Catholic  claims  to  be  able  to  allay  if 
possible  the  jealousy  of  English  Protestantism,  inquired 
of  Fingal,  who  was  spokesman  for  the  Irish  Catholic 
laity,  and  Dr.  Milner,  Vicar-Goneral  of  the  Midlands, 
who  acted  as  agent  in  London  for  the  Irish  prelates, 
wliether  there  was  no  pledge  or  guarantee  which  could 
be  offered  by  the  Catholics.  Fingal  and  Milner  then 
mentioned  the  check  on  the  nomination  of  bishops 
to  which  the  Irish  prelates  had  been  willing  to  con- 

3  • 


36  LIFE  OF  DANIEL  O'CONNELL. 

sent  in  1799,  and  Milner  said  that  the  bishops, 
while  immovably  opposed  to  a  positive  interference  of 
Government  in  their  aflfairs,  would  accept  such  nega- 
tive interference  as  would  give  the  Government  addi- 
tional means  of  satisfying  themselves  of  the  loyalty  of 
episcopal  candidates. 

Accordingly,  Grattan  in  the  House  of  Commons, 
and  Lord  Grenville  in  the  House  of  Lords,  announced 
that  they  were  empowered  on  the  part  of  the  Roman 
Catholics  to  offer  such  an  arrangement  as  part  of 
the  general  emancipation.  Ponsonby  said  that  the 
Catholic  bishops  authorised  him  to  say  that  they 
would  consent  to  their  appointment  by  the  Crown. 
In  fact,  however,  the  Roman  Catholics  proved  to  be 
divided  upon  the  question,  and,  not  without  disin- 
genuousness,  Milner  hastened  next  day  to  withdraw 
from  his  pledge.  The  Irish  bishops  thought  that 
whatever  they  might  have  been  willing  to  agree  to  nine 
years  before,  when  endowment  was  offered  to  them, 
to  consent  to  a  veto  now  was  to  give  up  their  Church's 
exclusive  control  over  her  own  discipline.  A  synod 
was  held  of  all  the  bishops  of  Ireland,  which  con- 
demned it  with  but  three  dissentients;  and  on  14th 
September  they  formally  resolved  that  it  was  inexpe- 
dient to  make  any  alteration  in  the  mode  of  appointing 
bishops.  An  address  of  thanks  to  them  for  this  course 
was  signed  by  forty  thousand  laymen.  Among  the 
Catholic  laity,  however,  there  was  a  party,  who  on  this 
point  were  in  close  agreement  with  Charles  Butler  and 
the  English  Catholics,  with  whom  the  idea  of  this 
Crown  veto  seems  to  have  originated  about  1791. 
Lord  Southwell  and  Sir  Edward  Bellew  requested  an 
explanation  of  the  meaning  of  this  episcopal  resolution. 
Archbishop  O'Reilly  cautiously  replied  that,  without  de- 


THE  SECURITIES  CONTROVERSY.  37 

iinitively  pronouncing  a  Crown  veto  contrary  to  the  doc- 
trine and  discipline  of  the  Church,  the  bishops  saw 
danger,  for  the  present  at  least,  in  such  interference  by 
Ministers  in  Church  affairs.  Their  opposition,  how- 
ever, became  steadily  more  uncompromising,  and  the 
majority  of  the  laity  applauded  their  action. 

In  1810,  on  February  25th,  the  bishops  voted  their 
unconditional  adherence  to  the  resolutions  of  Sep- 
tember 1808,  and  declared  **  that  it  is  the  undoubted 
and  exclusive  right  of  Roman  Catholic  bishops  to  dis- 
cuss all  matters  appertaiuing  to  the  doctrines  and  dis- 
cipline of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,"  and  that  they 
knew  of  no  stronger  pledge  of  their  loyalty  than  the 
oath  then  in  force.  Grattan,  in  presenting  the  Ca- 
tholic petition  in  that  year,  was  obliged  to  announce 
that  he  could  no  longer  offer  any  securities  on  the  part 
of  the  Catholics.  On  the  other  hand,  the  nobility, 
almost  without  exception,  and  no  inconsiderable  part  of 
the  middle  class  members  of  the  committee,  were  for  the 
veto.  Lord  Fingal,  Sir  Edward  Bellew,  and  Woulfe, 
afterwards  Chief  Baron,  seceded  from  the  Board. 
Sheil,  then  a  very  young  but  rising  man,  opposed 
a  motion  of  Dromgoole's  against  securities  in  any 
form,  with  a  declaration  that  the  agitation  about 
securities  had  deplorably  thrown  back  the  cause  of 
Emancipation,  and  that  if  restrictions  not  more  severe 
than  those  borne  by  the  Church  of  England  would 
satisfy  the  invincible  prejudices  of  the  English,  the 
English  ought  to  be  humoured.  O'Connell  took  him 
sliarply  to  task.  He  pronounced  this  view  a  **  doctrine 
of  slavery,"  a  "base  and  vile  traffic,'*  and  **  a  peddling 
and  huxtering  speculation."  Tie  said  that  to  accept  the 
restrictions  was  to  plead  guilty  to  all  the  charges  that 
the  English  made  against  Papists ;  that  no  Protestant 


38  LIFE  OF  DANIEL  O'GONNELL. 

Minister  could  act  honestly  in  the  appointment  of 
Roman  Catholic  bishops ;  that  ministerial  bishops 
would  be  a  means  of  uncatholicising  Ireland,  and 
bishoprics  the  reward  of  the  political  services  of  minis- 
terial toadies  ;  and  he  laid  down  in  the  most  explicit 
terms  the  absolute  discretion  of  the  bishops  them- 
selves in  the  matter.  **  If  the  revered  and  venerable 
prelates  of  our  Church,  exercising  their  discretion  as  to 
that  which  belongs  to  them  exclusively,  the  details  of 
discipline,  shall  deem  it  right  to  establish  a  domestic 
nomination  purely  and  exclusively  Irish  .  .  .  the  Board 
will  not  interfere  with  such  arrangement." 

Meantime,  to  the  English  Emancipationists  the  course 
of  Irish  Catholic  opinion  was  of  no  moment,  except  in 
so  far  as  its  violence  might  endanger  the  cause,  by  dis- 
gusting the  English  public.  It  was  the  episcopate  of 
the  English  not  of  the  Irish  Catholic  Church,  the  House 
of  Commons  and  not  the  Catholic  Committee,  which  had 
to  be  persuaded.  From  the  time  when  Castlereagh  joined 
the  Government  in  1812,  Emancipation  was  an  open 
question.  Napoleon's  invasion  of  Eussia,  as  yet  pros- 
perous, was  filling  the  nation  with  alarm,  and  bringing 
it  into  a  conciliatory  frame  of  mind;  and  on  June  22nd, 
1812,  Canning  moved  a  resolution,  which  pledged  the 
House  of  Commons  "  early  in  the  next  session  to  take 
into  their  consideration  the  laws  affecting  the  Roman 
Catholics,  with  a  view  to  their  final  and  conciliatory  ad- 
justment." It  was  carried  by  a  majority  of  129,  the 
largest  majority  in  favour  of  the  Roman  Catholics  in 
Canning's  lifetime.  Charles  Butler  thereupon  began  to 
draft  a  bill,  and,  largely  upon  Canning's  advice,  in- 
serted elaborate  **  securities  "  clauses.  One  provided 
for  an  oath  to  be  taken  by  every  Catholic  clergyman, 
that  he  would  not  assent  to  or  concur  in  the  appoint- 


THE  SECURITIES  CONTROVERSY,  39 

ment  of  any  Catholic  prelate  in  Ireland,  unless  he  should 
consider  such  prelate  to  he  of  unimpeachable  loyalty 
and  peaceful  conduct,  and  the  oath  proceeded,  "  I  have 
not  and  will  not  have  any  communication  with  the  Pope 
tending  directly  or  indirectly  to  overthrow  or  disturb 
the  Protestant  Government  or  the  Protestant  Church 
of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  or  the  Church  of 
Scotland  as  by  law  established,  or  on  any  matter  or 
thing  not  purely  spiritual  or  ecclesiastical."  To  further 
ensure  the  safety  of  Protestantism,  a  Board  of  Com- 
missioners, partly  Protestant  and  partly  Roman  Catho- 
lic, was  to  be  appointed  to  inquire  into  the  character 
of  nominees  for  vacant  sees  or  deaneries,  in  order 
to  ascertain  whether  there  was  any  shadow  on  their 
loyalty  or  conduct.  Subject  to  these  restrictions,  the 
House  of  Commons  and  all  offices  except  those  of  Lord 
Chancellor  or  Lord  Keeper  and  Lord  Lieutenant  or 
Lord  Deputy,  were  to  be  thrown  open  to  the  Roman 
Catholics.  On  March  2nd,  1813,  Grattan  carried  a 
motion  in  the  House  of  Commons  in  favour  of  Eman- 
cipation by  264  to  224,  and  in  April  he  introduced  this 
bill.  The  majority  rose  to  42  on  the  second  reading, 
but  in  committee,  on  the  motion  of  Abbott,  the 
Speaker,  the  admission  of  Catholics  to  Parliament  was 
thrown  out  by  251  to  247  on  May  24th,  and  the  bill 
was  withdrawn.  It  never  was  reintroduced,  for  on  the 
very  verge  of  victory  the  friends  of  tlie  Catliolics  found 
their  cause  compromised  by  the  conduct  of  the  leaders 
and  people  in  Ireland.  When  the  rumour  of  the  pro- 
posals got  abroad,  they  provoked  not  gratitude  for  tlie 
boon,  but  fury  at  the  safeguards.  Before  the  result  of  the 
Speaker's  motion  was  known  in  Ireland  the  prelates  had 
met  on  May  27th,  and  unanimously  resolved  **  tliat  the 
ecclesiastical  securities  are  absolutely  incompatible  with 


40  LIFE  OF  DANIEL  O'CONNELL, 

tlie  discipline  of  the  Koman  Catholic  Church  and  with 
tlie  free  exercise  of  our  religion  ;  without  incurring  the 
guilt  of  schism  we  cannot  accede  to  such  regulations, 
neither  can  we  dissemhle  our  dismay  and  consternation 
at  the  consequences  which  such  regulations,  if  enforced, 
must  necessarily  produce/'  The  Catholic  Board  hotly 
debated  whether  the  laity  were  to  be  excluded  from  a 
boon  because  the  prelates  objected  to  its  attendant 
securities  as  uncanonical.  O'Connell  warmly  defended 
the  bishops,  and  attacked  Grattan  violently  for  ever 
consenting  to  such  clauses.  During  the  autumn,  meet- 
ings in  various  parts  of  Ireland  denounced  Grattan^s 
**  securities."  In  November  a  correspondence  took  place 
between  the  Board  and  Grattan  and  Lord  Donough- 
more,  in  which  both  the  latter  refused  further  communica- 
lions  if  the  policy  was  to  be  that  no  securities  were  to  be 
inserted  in  any  Relief  Bill,  except  such  as  might  please 
the  Roman  Catholic  bishops ;  such  a  demand,  said  they, 
was  to  dictate  to  Parliament  and  leave  it  a  bare  choice 
between  Aye  and  No.  Personal  relations  grew  strained. 
Scully  declined  to  meet  Plunket ;  Plunket  talked  of  not 
attending  Parliament  at  all ;  and  Lord  Donoughmore  was 
with  difficulty  restrained  from  challenging  his  opponents 
on  the  Catholic  Board.  In  the  following  spring  0*Con- 
nell  moved  at  the  Board  to  take  the  petition  out  of 
the  veteran  Grattan's  hands,  and  to  send  over  a  deputa- 
tion to  select  some  English  member  to  whom  it  might 
be  entrusted.  He  withdrew  his  motion,  but  though 
Grattan  consented  to  present  the  petition,  neither  the 
demand  of  the  Board  nor  an  aggregate  meeting  could 
prevail  upon  him  to  move  its  discussion. 

Meantime,  both  parties  naturally  had  their  eyes 
turned  to  Rome.  Wyse  and  others  were  in  Rome  on 
behalf  of  the  Vetoists ;  a  friar  named  Richard  Hayes,  a 


THE  SECURITIES  CONTROVERSY.  41 

nominee  of  O'Connell's,  represented,  but  without  tact 
or  discretion,  the  Domestic  Nomination  party.  Since 
the  annexation  of  the  States  of  the  Church  in  1809,  the 
Pope  had  been  the  pensioned  prisoner  of  Napoleon  in 
France.  Quarantotti,  the  Vice-Prefect  of  the  Propa- 
ganda, was  in  charge  of  the  Holy  See.  In  the  beginning 
of  1814,  it  appeared  that  the  Holy  See  itself  had  none 
of  those  fears  of  schism  which  agitated  the  Irish  pre- 
lates. On  February  16th,  Quarantotti  wrote  from  Rome 
to  Dr.  Poynter,  the  English  Vicar  Apostolic  : — 

Nos,  qui  summo  absente  pastore  sacris  missionibus  praefecti  sumns 
et  Pontificiis  omnibus  facultatibus  ad  id  communiti,  muneris  nostri 
partes  esse  putavimus  omnem  ambiguitatem  atque  objectionem  remo- 
vere,  quae  optatao  conciliationi  possit  obsistere.  Habito  igitur  d<Jc- 
tissimorum  praesulum  ac  theologorum  consilio,  perspectis  litteria  turn 
ab  Amputate  tua,  tum  ab  Archiepiscopo  Dubliniensi  hue  missis,  ac  re 
in  peculiari  congregationi  mature  perpensa,  decretum  est,  ut  Catholici 
legem,  quae  superiore  anno  rogata  fuit  pro  illorum  emancipatione 
juxta  formam,  qu»  ab  Amplitate  tua  relata  est,  aequo  gratoque  animo 
excipiant  et  amplectantur. 

The  letter  fell  on  the  Irish  Catholics  like  a  bomb- 
shell. From  the  highest  to  the  lowest  they  were  in 
dismay.  **  What  shall  we  do,"  said  a  servant-maid,  **  is 
it,  can  it  be  true  the  Pope  has  turned  Orangeman  ?  *' 
But  the  clergy  soon  rallied.  They  pronounced  the 
letter  of  Quarantotti  a  nullity  and  a  usurpation.  Dr. 
Coppinger,  Bishop  of  Cloyno,  called  it  "  a  very  mischie- 
vous document.'*  O'Shaughnessy,  Bishop  of  Dromore, 
pronounced  it  '*  pernicious.*'  The  priests  of  the  Arch- 
diocese of  Dublin  resolved  that  it  was  non-obligatory, 
for  want  of  the  signature  of  the  Pope,  and  expressed  an 
opinion  that  nothing  less  august  than  an  (Ecumenical 
Council  was  competent  to  doal  witli  the  relations  be- 
tween an  Irish  bishop  and  an  English  Secretary  of 
State.     The  bishops  assembled  at  Maynooth   and  voted 


42  LIFE  OF  DANIEL  O'CONNELL. 

the  letter  not  to  be  mandatory.  An  aggregate  meeting 
of  the  laity,  held  at  Dublin  on  May  19th,  was  even 
more  sturdy.  Though  throughout  the  controversy  the 
securities  question  had  been  treated  as  a  matter  pecu- 
liarly of  a  canonical  and  ecclesiastical  nature,  the  meet- 
ing resolved  *'  that  we  deem  it  a  duty  to  ourselves  and 
our  country  solemnly  and  distinctly  to  declare  that  any 
decree,  mandate,  rescript,  or  decision  whatsoever  of  any 
foreign  power  or  authority,  religious  or  civil,  ought  not 
and  can  not  of  right  assume  any  dominion  or  control 
over  the  political  concerns  of  the  Catholics  of  Ireland." 
lo  July  they  even  procured  of  the  Pope  the  dismissal  of 
the  luckless  Vice-Prefect  and  a  repudiation  of  his 
letter.  But  the  Catholics  of  Ireland  had  resisted  too 
long.  Grattan  abandoned  the  Catholic  claims  for  the 
session.  The  Allies  entered  Paris ;  the  war  was  over; 
the  pressure  of  twenty  years  of  danger  was  removed. 
Irish  discontent  no  longer  put  the  English  in  any  jeo- 
pardy. On  the  3rd  of  June  the  Catholic  Board  was 
proclaimed. 

This  stubborn  objection  to  securities  in  any  shape  or 
form  cost  the  Catholics  fourteen  years  of  waiting  for 
Emancipation,  and  cost  both  England  and  Ireland  no 
one  can  say  how  much  strife  and  ill-feeling,  agitation 
and  bigotry.  It  is  difficult  to  suppose  that  the  large 
majority  in  the  House  of  Commons,  which  voted  for 
Catholic  Belief  in  1813,  was  much  actuated  by  fear 
of  Catholic  discontent  during  the  continuance  of  the 
war  or  by  anything  but  a  sense  of  the  injustice  under 
which  the  Catholics  laboured.  The  effect  of  unanimity 
among  the  Catholics  and  of  moderation  in  their  lan- 
guage would,  it  can  hardly  be  doubted,  have  turned  the 
scale  in  their  favour  within  a  very  short  time.  In  1812, 
the  Marquis  Wellesley,  who   had  every  opportunity  of 


TEE  SECVBITIE8  C0NTB0VEB8Y.  43 

forming  a  just  forecast,  was  standiDg  with  Charles  Butler 
behind  the  throne  during  the  Catholic  debate  in  the 
House  of  Lords.  **  Sir,"  said  he  to  Butler,  **  if  the 
Catholics  conduct  their  cause  with  propriety,  I  insure  you 
success  in  three  years,  perhaps  in  one."  That  the  suc- 
cess which  was  then  so  close  at  hand  was  not  achieved 
until  1829  was  the  doing  of  the  priests  and  O'Connell. 

A  change  had  come  over  the  priesthood  since  the 
last  generation,  which  had  profoundly  altered  its  cha- 
racter. The  priests  then  were  necessarily  educated 
abroad,  and  naturally,  therefore,  were  drawn  from  fami- 
lies of  means  and  position.  Many  of  them  were  English- 
men. Thus  they  were  ready  enough  to  acquiesce  in  a  con- 
trol which,  in  its  intention  at  least,  was  nothing  but  a 
legitimate  assurance  by  the  State  of  its  own  safety.  But 
the  alteration  in  the  Catholic  laws  had  given  the  clergy 
the  means  of  education  at  home,  and  their  body  had 
become  more  insular  and  isolated,  more  professional 
and  more  Irish.  A  few  prelates  breathed  secret  fears 
that  domestic  nomination  pure  and  simple  might 
vulgarise  the  episcopate,  but,  practically  without  excep- 
tion, the  priesthood  would  accept  no  State  supervision 
of  their  conduct  in  ecclesiastical  affairs.  In  this  they 
were  supported  by  O'Connell  with  ardour  and  even  in- 
temperate heat. 

There  was  something  of  the  ecclesiastic  in  O'Conneirs 
temperament ;  he  had  been  educated  by  priests,  and  his 
deep  personal  piety  attached  him  to  the  priesthood  so 
unhesitatingly,  that  even  in  politics,  wliere  most  men, 
however  religious,  feel  a  lurking  doubt  of  eoolesiastics, 
however  disinterested,  no  mistrust  came  between  him 
and  them.  There  was,  indeed,  much  to  be  said  against 
the  veto,  though  perhaps  not  enough  to  outweigh  the 
advantage  of  a   settlement   of  the   question  forthwith. 


U  LIFE  OF  DANIEL  O'CONNELL. 

Hitherto  the  Church  of  Kome  had  been  subject  to  no 
State  control  in  ecclesiastical  matters.  It  was  subject 
to  prohibitions,  which  were  disregarded,  and  to  penalties 
which  were  not  enforced,  but  in  its  spiritual  affairs  as 
such  the  State  did  not  interfere.  The  veto  required  the 
priests  to  make  a  sacrifice  of  spiritual  freedom  ;  the 
freedom  which  was  to  be  thereby  purchased  was  a  tem- 
poral one,  to  be  enjoyed  by  the  laity.  Pitt's  veto  was 
to  have  been  in  consideration  of  an  endowment  to 
Roman  Catholics,  but  there  was  now  no  suggestion  of 
any  endowment.  The  clergy  resolved  to  wait  for  better 
terms.  With  its  past  and  its  principles,  the  Church  of 
Rome  has  a  corporate  pride,  which  it  prefers  to  main- 
tain at  the  price  of  a  moderate  martyrdom. 

O'Connell,  however,  had  a  political  object  in  resisting 
any  such  compromise.  Though  the  Imperial  Parlia- 
ment had  done  nothing  for  Ireland  since  the  Union  but 
pass  Coercion  Acts,  which,  it  must  be  admitted,  inter- 
mittent rebellion  and  chronic  disturbance  during  a  time 
of  national  struggle  with  foreign  foes  did  much  to 
justify,  there  was  no  specific  reform,  except  Catholic 
Relief,  which  any  unanimous  or  influential  party  then 
demanded.  Although  perhaps  no  part  of  the  law  was 
beyond  need  of  a  radical  change,  the  most  imme- 
diate cause  of  Irish  discontent  was  the  corrupt  state 
and  constant  maladministration  of  the  unpaid  magis- 
tracy. But  behind  all  questions  and  grievances  there  re- 
mained a  deep,  though  voiceless,  yearning  for  Repeal,  and 
it  was  his  desire  for  Repeal  that  determined  O'Connell 
for  the  present  to  keep  open  the  grievance  of  the  Catholic 
Disabilities.  Ardent  as  he  was  for  the  relief  of  his  co- 
religionists, his  first  aim  in  politics,  as  it  was  his  last, 
was  to  restore  their  Parliament  to  his  countrymen. 
''  It  was  the  Union,"  he  said,  *'  which  first  stirred  me 


THE  SECURITIES  CONTROVERSY.  45 

up  to  come  forward  in  politics.  I  was  maddened  when 
I  heard  the  hells  of  St.  Patrick's  ringing  out  a  joyful 
peal  for  Ireland's  degradation,  as  if  it  were  a  glorious 
national  festival.  My  hlood  hoiled,  and  I  vowed  on 
that  morning  that  the  dishonour  should  not  last  if  I 
could  put  an  end  to  it."  The  meeting  at  which  he  made 
his  first  public  appearance  had  been  one  held  by  the  Catho- 
lics in  the  Iloyal  Exchange  Hall  on  13th  January  1800, 
to  protest  against  the  Union.  He  had  risen,  an  un- 
known lawyer,  to  make  his  speech,  when  the  tramp  of 
yeomanry  was  heard  outside,  and  the  clank  of  musket- 
butts  grounded  on  the  stones  of  the  portico.  Major 
Sirr  appeared  in  the  midst  of  the  affrighted  Catholics 
and  demanded  to  see  the  resolutions.  They  had  been 
originally  drafted  by  Curran  in  very  fiery  terms,  but  in 
deference  to  the  timidity  of  some  of  the  Catholics,  they 
had  been  toned  down,  and  were  found  unexceptionable. 
Sirr  threw  them  back  on  the  table  saying  **  There  is  no 
harm  in  these,"  and  retired,  and  the  meeting  was 
allowed  to  proceed.  But  as  time  went  on,  O'Connell 
saw  that  to  weld  the  people  of  Ireland  into  a  compact 
united  mass,  resolutely  demanding  Repeal,  was  at  once 
indispensable  and  almost  hopeless.  Faction  had  been 
the  bane  of  Irish  politics.  Even  on  the  Eraanoipatiou 
question  he  found  the  clergy  timid,  the  aristocracy 
jealous  of  the  merchants,  the  merchants  jealous  of  the 
aristocracy,  the  barristers  jealous  of  one  another,  and 
the  masses  ignorant,  utterly  unused  to  political  delibe- 
ration or  action,  willing  to  throw  up  their  hats  and 
cheer  if  a  favourite  of  the  hour  appeared  upon  the 
street,  but  fickle  and  untrustworthy,  and  politically 
powerless,  A  resort  to  arms  was  a  madness  and  a 
orime.  Nothing  but  a  generation  of  agitation  could 
educate  and  unite  the  Irish  people  into  a  political  force, 


46  LIFE  OF  DANIEL  O'CONNELL. 

and  no  question  but  Catholic  Relief  could  be  agitated 
through  a  generation.  In  the  thick  of  the  veto  conflict  he 
said,  at  a  meeting  in  Dublin  on  29th  June  1813  : — 

Your  enemies  say  that  I  wish  for  a  separation  between  England 
and  Ireland.  The  charge  is  false,  to  use  a  modern  quotation,  "  false 
as  hell."  Next,  your  enemies  accuse  me  of  a  desire  for  the  indepen- 
dence of  Ireland.  I  admit  the  charge,  and  let  them  make  the  most 
of  it.  I  have  seen  Ireland  a  kingdom.  I  reproach  myself  with 
having  lived  to  behold  her  a  province.  Yes,  I  confess  it — I  will  ever 
be  candid  upon  the  subject — I  have  an  ulterior  object,  the  Repeal  of 
the  Union,  and  the  restoration  to  Ireland  of  her  old  independence.  .  .  . 
Desiring  as  I  do  the  Repeal  of  the  Union,  I  rejoice  to  see  how  our 
enemies  promote  that  great  object.  Yes,  they  promote  its  inevitable 
success  by  their  very  hostility  to  Ireland  ;  they  delay  the  liberties  of 
the  Catholic,  but  they  compensate  us  most  amply,  because  they 
advance  the  restoration  of  Ireland.  By  leaving  one  cause  of  agitation 
they  have  created,  and  they  will  embody  and  give  shape  and  form  to 
a  public  mind  and  a  public  spirit.  I  repeat  it,  the  delay  of  Emancipa- 
tion I  hear  Avith  pleasure,  because  in  that  delay  is  included  the  only 
prospect  of  obtaining  my  great,  my  ultimate  object,  the  legislative 
independence  of  my  native  land. 

Whether  O'Oonnell  was  wise  or  unwise  in  his  strategy 
must  depend  on  the  view  which  is  taken  of  the  prospect, 
and  the  value  of  Repeal.  But  of  his  disinterestedness 
he  gave  the  best  of  proofs.  As  yet,  outside  of  Dublin, 
agitation  had  not  won  him  the  adoration  of  the  populace. 
The  course  that  he  took  did  win  for  him  the  dislike  of  the 
nobility  and  the  gentry  of  his  party.  It  is  true  that  on 
December  16th,  1813,  the  Catholics  presented  him  with  a 
service  of  plate  of  the  value  of  a  thousand  guineas,  but 
year  by  year  agitation  cost  him  much  in  money  and  more 
in  time,  which  was  more  precious  to  him  than  money.  He 
had  a  large  practice,  but  he  had  also  a  large  family,* 
large  expenses,  and  as  yet  little  or  no  patrimony.  The 
**  good  behaviour''  of  the  Irish  Catholics  could  hardly 

*  O'Connell  married  his  cousin,  Mary  O'Connell,  in  1802. 


THE  SECURITIES  CONTROVERSY.  47 

have  failed,  on  the  passing  of  Grattan's  Bill,  to  have 
been  rewarded  with  professional  promotion.  O'Connell, 
not  yet  obnoxious  to  any  English  person  or  party, 
would  have  been  one  of  the  first  recipients  of  a  silk 
gown,  and  must  have  risen  inevitably  at  a  stride  to  the 
highest  position  and  emoluments  of  his  profession;  and 
if  he  wished  for  more,  who  so  likely  to  be  among  the 
first  Koman  Catholic  members  of  Parliament  as  the 
great  King's  Counsel,  the  eloquent  orator,  the  champion 
of  the  Catholic  cause,  in  the  sense  in  which  the  gentry 
understood  the  term  ?  All  this  was  within  his  grasp, 
and  he  threw  it  all  away.  He  preferred  to  fight  the 
battle  of  the  priests  and  of  Repeal,  at  the  cost  of  the 
disapproval  of  equals  and  of  professional  sacrifices. 
Of  the  wisdom  of  this  policy  the  course  of  events  has 
raised,  and  still  sustains,  a  doubt ;  but  of  the  courage, 
foresight,  and  disinterestedness  of  O'Connell  there  can 
be  none. 


48  LIFE  OF  DANIEL  0' CON  NELL. 


CHAPTEK    III. 

CATHOLIC   DESPONDENCY. 

1814-1823. 

State  of  Affairs  after  the  Dissolution  of  the  Board — O'Conneirs  Duel 
with  D'Esterre — Affair  with  Peel — Trial  of  Magee  for  libel  on  the 
Duke  of  Richmond — Visit  of  George  IV.  to  Dublin. 

The  suppression  of  the  Board  was  a  terrible  blow  to 
the  Catholics.  Except  his  last  days,  the  next  seven 
years  were  the  darkest  of  O'Connell's  life.  A  meeting 
was  held  at  his  house,  which  resolved  upon  sub- 
mission; indeed,  there  was  nothiug  else  to  be  done. 
For  the  time  being  the  back  of  the  agitation  was 
broken.  In  vain  he  endeavoured  to  rally  his  followers. 
Next  year,  with  characteristic  hopefulness  he  declared 
that  after  much  deliberation  he  was  sure  during  that 
session  they  would  get  at  least  a  portion  of  eman- 
cipation. He  was  wrong  in  his  forecast,  and  his  hope- 
fulness effected  nothing.  The  Vetoists,  too,  were 
powerless.  Small  and  timid  meetings  were  held  at  Lord 
FingaVs  house,  which  merely  resolved  to  leave  the 
Catholic  petition  in  the  hands  of  Grattan  and  Lord 
Donoughmore,  and  to  found  an  association  to  take  the 


CATHOLIC  DESPONDENCY.  49 

place  of  the  Board.  The  split  between  the  two  parties, 
the  **  securities "  men  and  the  ^^bold  measure''  men, 
was  too  deep  to  be  remedied.  The  controversy  had  de- 
generated into  a  personal  struggle,  in  which  each  party 
imputed  to  the  other  every  baseness.  It  was  long  before 
this  animosity  was  appeased,  and  the  misfortune  was  the 
greater  because  English  public  opinion  never  was  more 
favourable  to  Emancipation  than  then.  The  two  parties 
endeavoured,  but  in  vain,  to  support  separate  organiza- 
tions. The  Vetoists  held  meetings  at  Lord  TrimIeston*s 
house ;  the  Catholic  Association,  which  succeeded  the 
Board  in  February  1815,  met  at  Fitzpatrick's  in 
Capel  Street.  The  former  left  their  petition  in  Grat- 
tan's  hands ;  the  latter  entrusted  theirs  to  Sir  Henry 
Parnell.  Both  were  represented  by  Lord  Donough- 
more  in  the  House  of  Lords.  O'Connell  boldly  denied 
that  a  small  body  of  seceders,  meeting  in  private,  had  any 
right  to  speak  for  ihe  Catholics  at  large.  In  February 
1817  the  Vetoists  advertised  a  meeting  to  be  held  in 
Dublin  at  No.  50  Eccles  Street.  O'Connell  and  a  few 
others  decided  to  invade  it.  They  were  confronted  at 
the  door  with  an  order,  signed  by  Lord  Southwell  and 
Sir  Edward  Bellew,  that  no  one  was  to  bo  admitted 
who  was  not  a  party  to  the  Catholic  petition  com- 
mitted to  Grattan  the  year  before.  They  put  the  foot- 
boy  and  his  orders  aside,  and,  to  the  oonsternation  of 
the  decorous  meeting  upstairs,  appeared  in  the  drawiog- 
room.  They  wore  requested  to  withdraw,  and  declined. 
The  outraged  Vetoists  took  refuge  in  a  motion  for 
an  immediate  adjournment.  O'Connell  challenged  il 
and  delivered  a  long  and  vigorous  speech  against 
the  **  securities."  But  nothing  practical  resulted. 
Such  a  course  might  inspire  his  own  shrinking  fol- 
lowers  with    temporary  courage,   but  it  failed  to  con- 

4 


50  LIFE  OF  DANIEL  O'CONNELL, 

ciliate  the  Veto  party.  By  this  time  the  politics  of  the 
see  of  Rome  had  changed  with  the  restoration  of  the 
Pope  to  the  Vatican.  The  Association  had  adopted  an 
address  of  remonstrance  to  His  Holiness  on  the  16th 
September  1815,  but  the  Pope  evaded  their  reproaches 
by  treating  it  as  a  lay  intervention  in  matters  ecclesias- 
tical, and  declined  to  receive  it  officially.  The  parish 
priests  and  a  majority  of  the  prelates  were  in  O'Con- 
nell's  favour,  but  so  exclusively  moral  was  their  sup- 
port, that  they  could  not  even  raise  the  rent  of  the 
rooms  in  Capel  Street  which  the  Association  occupied. 
For  a  time  he  paid  the  rent  himself,  and  then,  finding 
that  he  had  to  bear  the  whole  working  expenses  of  the 
Association,  removed  it  to  smaller  rooms  in  Cross 
Street.  In  January  1817  he  made  an  attempt  to  found 
a  society  of  ''Friends  of  Reform  in  Parliament,"  of 
which  both  Catholics  and  Protestants  were  to  be 
members,  but  after  a  few  meetings  it  collapsed.  A 
lethargy  fell  on  the  Catholics ;  it  was  the  winter  of 
their  discontent,  the  low-water  mark  of  their  activity. 
A  man  of  only  common  courage  must  have  given  up 
the  fight  in  despair. 

In  such  a  state  of  affairs  as  this,  O' Council,  who 
rarely  restrained  his  language,  did  not  mince  matters, 
but  spoke  of  his  opponents  with  asperity.  He  called 
the  Dublin  Corporation,  then  a  stronghold  of  Protes- 
tantism, a  **  beggarly  corporation."  One  of  its  mem- 
bers was  a  Mr.  J.  N.  D'Esterre,  a  native  of  Limerick, 
who  was  nominally  a  merchant,  but  was  said  to  be  in 
indigent  circumstances,  though  of  unimpeachable  re- 
spectability. In  his  youth  he  had  served  in  the  marines, 
and,  being  seized  by  the  mutineers  in  1797,  during 
the  mutiny  at  the  Nore,  was  placed  with  the  noose 
round  his  neck  ready  to  be  swung  up  to  the  yard- arm. 


CATHOLIC  DESPONDENCY.  51 

At  the  last  moment  they  offered  him  life  if  he  would 
join  them.  "No,  never!'*  cried  the  intrepid  officer. 
"  Hang  away,  and  be  damned  to  you  !"  The  answer  so 
enchanted  the  tars  that  he  was  immediately  set  at 
liberty.  He  now,  egged  on  perhaps  by  others,  who  saw 
a  chance  of  getting  rid  of  O'Connell,  decided  to  take  up 
the  cause  of  his  outraged  corporation.  The  duel  was  at 
this  time  a  recognised  instrument  of  party  warfare.  Even 
in  England  statesmen  and  ministers  stood  to  receive  each 
other's  fire.  Pitt  and  Tierney,  Canning  and  Castlereagh, 
the  Duke  of  Wellington  and  the  Earl  of  Winchelsea, 
Fitzgibbon  and  Curran,  had  fought,  and  even  Peel  was 
bellicose  and  a  sender  of  hostile  messages.  Among  Eng- 
lish statesmen,  it  is  true,  these  encounters  were  generally 
bloodless,  but  the  Irish  took  the  matter  more  seriously, 
and  the  chance  that  a  political  opponent  might  be  re- 
moved in  a  political  duel  was  considerable.  To  drink 
sparingly  of  your  host's  best  claret,  to  decide  at  petty  ses- 
sions for  a  tenant  against  his  landlord,  or  to  seduce  a 
forty-shilling  freeholder's  allegiance  in  a  county  election, 
touched  the  point  of  honour,  and  the  personal  affront 
could  only  be  atoned  for  with  bloodshed.  It  was  the 
first  time  that  O'Connell,  who  was  reported  a  good 
naarksman,  had  had  a  serious  affair.  In  August  1813, 
during  the  Limerick  Assizes,  he  went  out  with  Coun* 
sellor  Magrath,  with  whom  he  had  come  to  blows  in 
open  court,  but  when  the  combatants  met  in  the  usual 
battle-place,  the  old  coort-mill  field,  their  friends  ad- 
justed the  matter.  On  the  26th  January  1815 
D'Esterre  wrote  to  O'Connell  to  demand  explanations. 
Next  day  O'Connell  undauntedly  replied,  that  while 
individually  esteeming  many  of  its  members,  he  de- 
spised the  corporation  generally  for  its  bigotry.  After 
this   he   prepared    himself    in    due   course    to    receive 

4  • 


52  LIFE  OF  DANIEL  O'CONNELL. 

D'Esterre's  friends,  but  no  friends  came.  D'Esterre 
wrote  again  on  the  28th,  but  did  not  take  the  final  step. 
At  length,  on  Tuesday,  January  31st,  a  rumour  got  about 
that  D'Esterre,  though  but  a  little  man,  proposed  to 
cane  his  burly  antagonist  in  the  Hall  of  the  Four 
Courts,  and  a  crowd  gathered  to  see  it  done.  O'Con- 
nell,  determined  not  to  baulk  him,  showed  himself  in 
the  streets  all  the  afternoon,  and  public  attention  being 
excited,  a  party  of  five  hundred  gentlemen  followed  him 
about  to  enjoy  the  fun  or  to  prevent  an  assault.  O'Con- 
nell  had  to  take  refuge  from  their  importunity  in  a 
tavern.  This  scene  of  braggadocio  was  closed  in  the 
evening  by  the  arrival  of  Mr.  Justice  Day  at  O'Con- 
nelFs  house  to  arrest  him  and  prevent  a  breach  of  the 
peace.  His  lordship  went  away  pacified  with  O'Connell's 
pledge  not  to  be  the  challenger.  At  length  next  day 
Sir  Edward  Stanley,  then  barrack-master  in  Dublin, 
waited  with  D'Esterre's  challenge  on  Major  Macnamara, 
a  Protestant  gentleman,  who  was  acting  for  O'Connell. 
A  meeting  was  arranged  for  half-past  three  o'clock  that 
afternoon,  in  a  meadow  in  Lord  Ponsonby's  demesne, 
about  twelve  miles  from  the  city.  The  days  were  short, 
and  the  snow  was  lying  on  the  ground.  All  Dublin 
knew  what  was  going  on,  and  was  in  wild  anxiety 
for  the  fate  of  O'Connell.  A  large  number  of  gentle- 
men rode  out  to  the  field  to  see  the  fighting.  Punc- 
tually at  half-past  three  O'Connell  arrived ;  D'Esterre 
was  nearly  an  hour  late.  The  combatants  were  placed 
opposite  each  other,  each  with  a  pistol  in  either  hand, 
and  about  twenty  minutes  to  R\e  the  word  was  given. 
They  fired  almost  simultaneously,  D'Esterre  slightly 
the  first.  O'Connell  aimed  low,  and  D'Esterre,  struck 
in  the  hip,  fell,  bleeding  profusely.  The  party  sepa- 
rated.     As   O'Connell   quitted  the  field,   there   dashed 


CATHOLIC  DESPONDENCY.  63 

up  a  troop  of  horse  sent  by  the  Executive  to  protect 
D'Esterre,  in  case  of  his  victory,  from  the  fury  of 
the  mob.  The  people  lined  the  roads,  and  when  they 
saw  their  favourite  returning  in  safety,  raised  shouts 
of  joy.  Bonfires  blazed  till  midnight  in  the  streets 
of  Dublin.  Meantime,  poor  D'Esterre  was  carried 
to  his  house,  but  the  ball  could  not  be  found, 
and,  after  much  suffering,  he  expired  next  day.  The 
dead  man's  family  disclaimed  any  intention  of  pro- 
secuting ;  but  O'Connell  was  filled  with  remorse  at 
this  untoward  event.  He  settled  a  pension  on  the 
widow,  and  never  afterwards  passed  D'Esterre's  house 
without  baring  his  head  and  breathing  a  prayer. 

At  some  time  after  D'Esterre's  death,  he  registered 
a  vow  that  he  would  never  fight  again,  and  upon 
this  ground  refused  the  many  challenges  which  his 
vehement  invective  subsequently  brought  upon  him. 
The  vow,  however,  was  not  made  in  the  first  keenness  of 
remorse  for  D'Esterre's  loss.  Peel,  who  as  Chief  Secre- 
tary was  alive  to  the  formidable  power  of  O'Connell, 
took  care  to  quote  to  the  House  of  Commons  passages 
from  his  more  violent  speeches.  At  an  aggregate  meet- 
ing on  August  29th,  1815,  O'Connell  retaliated  by 
saying ; — 

I  am  told  ho  has  in  my  ahsenco,  and  in  a  place  where  he  wan 
privileged  from  any  accomit,  grossly  traduced  mc.  I  said  at  the  last 
meeting,  in  the  presence  of  the  note-takers  of  the  police,  who  are  paid 
by  him,  that  ho  was  too  prudent  to  attack  me  in  my  pretence.  I  8«e 
the  same  polico  informers  hore  now,  and  I  authorise  them  oar^foUy  to 
report  these  my  words,  that  Mr.  Peel  would  not  dare,  in  my  pr— eno< 
and  in  any  place  where  ho  was  liable  to  personal  account,  use  a  single . 
cxpreHHion  dorogatury  to  my  interest  or  my  honour. 

Peel  had  been  attacked  by  O'Connell  fiercely  enough 
before.     He  had  been   spoken    of  as  "  that   ludicrous 


54  LIFE  OF  DANIEL  O'CONNELL. 

enemy  of  ours,  who  has  got  in  jest  the  name  he  de- 
serves in  good  earnest  of  Orange  Peel,  a  raw  youth 
squeezed  out  of  the  workings  of  I  know  not  what  fac- 
tory in  England,  who  .  .  .  was  sent  over  here  before 
he  had  got  rid  of  the  foppery  of  perfumed  handkerchiefs 
and  thin  shoes. '^  But  this  was  too  direct  an  attack  to 
be  passed  over.  On  the  31st  Sir  Charles  Saxton  waited 
on  O^Connell  on  Peel's  behalf,  and  offered  him  the 
usual  satisfaction  if  he  felt  aggrieved.  O'Connell  re- 
plied that  Peers  conduct  was  "handsome  and  gentle- 
manlike/' but  he  must  consult  his  friends,  though  for 
his  own  part  he  hoped  they  might  advise  fighting. 
The  advice  of  the  friends  was  that,  in  effect,  the  speech 
made  O'Connell  the  aggressor,  and  the  challenge  there- 
fore could  not  come  from  him.  Saxton,  who  seems 
to  have  thought  that  O'Connell  wished  to  evade  a 
meeting,  published  a  version  of  the  affair  in  the 
papers,  which  O'Connell  answered  by  regretting  that 
his  opponents  should  have  preferred  **  a  paper  war/' 
and  calling  the  publication  *'  a  dirty  trick."  On  Sep- 
tember the  4th,  Peel  replied  by  sending  a  challenge 
to  O'Connell  by  Colonel  Browne.  The  affair  was, 
of  course,  public  property,  and  in  her  alarm  poor 
Mrs.  O'Connell  sent  to  the  Sheriff  to  prevent  a 
breach  of  the  peace.  Late  at  night  that  functionary 
arrived,  took  O'Connell  in  bed,  and  caused  him  to  be 
bound  over  in  a  considerable  sum  to  keep  the  peace ; 
but  when  he  went  to  the  Chief  Secretary's  house  to 
take  Peel  also,  he  found  that  Peel  with  Browne  and 
Saxton  had  quitted  it  for  England.  Next  day  O'Con- 
nell sent  Mr.  Bennett  to  Colonel  Browne  with  an  offer 
to  meet  Peel  at  any  place  on  the  Continent  that  might 
suit  his  convenience.  Browne  proposed  that  the  parties 
should  proceed,  separately  and  as  soon  as  possible,  to 


CATHOLIC  DESPONDENCY.  55 

Ostend,  binding  themselves  to  secrecy,  and  should  leave 
their  addresses  at  the  post  office  there.  To  this  Peel 
agreed:  he  set  off  and  reached  Ostend  on  the  14th. 
O'Connell  was  to  elude  observation  by  sailing  for  the 
Continent  from  Waterford.  But  the  police  were  on  the 
alert ;  they  had  received  orders  to  transmit  to  the  Foreign 
Secretary  the  names  of  all  passengers  by  the  packets 
from  the  southern  and  western  ports  of  Ireland,  and 
were  watching  the  coast  of  Essex.  O'Connell  changed 
his  plans,  and  contrived  to  get  over  to  England  from 
the  south  of  Ireland.  But  the  authorities  in  London, 
too,  were  on  the  watch.  Peel's  father,  not  less  anxious 
than  O'Connell's  wife,  is  said  to  have  offered  a  reward 
of  tifty  guineas  for  O'Connell's  capture.  Being  detained 
by  the  necessity  of  getting  passports  at  the  Dutch 
Embassy,  he  concealed  himself  as  well  as  he  could, 
changed  his  lodging  from  the  British  Hotel  to  Holy- 
land's  Coffee  House  in  the  Strand,  and  ordered  a  post- 
chaise  for  Brighton  at  4  a.m.  one  Monday  morning. 
But  the  police  were  hanging  about  at  3  a.m.  As  he 
was  stepping  into  his  carriage  he  was  arrested  by 
Lavender,  a  Bow  Street  runner,  armed  with  the  warrant 
of  Lord  Chief  Justice  Ellenborough.  He  was  taken 
before  Mr.  Justice  Lo  Blanc  and  bound  over  in  his  own 
recognizances  of  iJl,000  and  two  others  of  £500  each, 
to  keep  the  peace  and  not  to  quit  London  till  the 
first  day  of  the  following  term.  The  duel  was  thus 
finally  prevented :  nor  did  0*Conneli  ever  tight  again. 
Some  short  time  afterwards  O'Connell  was  arguing 
an  obscure  legal  point  before  Lord  Norbury.  "My 
Lord  !  '*  said  lie,  **  I  fear  1  do  not  make  myself  under- 
stood.'* **  Oh  !  Mr.  0*Connell,*'  said  his  lordship,  *'I 
am  sure  no  on(3  is  more  easily  apprehended** 

Later  in  lite  O'Councirs  bitter  tongue    brought   on 


56  LIFE  OF  JDANIFL  O'CONNELL, 

him  other  challenges.  In  1825,  being  challenged  by 
Leyne,  a  Kerry  barrister,  he  lodged  an  information 
against  him.  A  year  or  two  later  Sheehy,  an  outraged 
newspaper  proprietor  of  Cork,  cuffed  him  in  the  streets 
of  Dublin  with  the  same  result.  In  1830  the  Chief 
Secretary,  Sir  Henry  Hardinge  sent  hira  a  message, 
Lord  Alvanley  sent  him  one  in  1835,  and  in  the  same 
year  Mr.  Disraeli  challenged  his  son.  He  incurred 
the  severest  censure  for  running  riot  with  his  tongue 
while  denying  to  his  wounded  opponents  the  satisfaction 
of  falling  by  his  pistol ;  but  although  it  is  impossible 
to  approve  his  conduct  in  using  the  strongest  lan- 
guage and  declining  to  take  the  consequences,  his 
action  certainly  did  a  great  deal  to  discredit  the 
practice. 

Meantime  he  was  pursuing  his  practice  at  the  bar, 
and  his  professional  fame  was  at  its  height.  Unlike 
Curran,  whose  bitter  enemy,  Lord  Clare,  practically  ex- 
pelled him  from  practice  in  the  Court  of  Chancery, 
O'Connell  could  not  be  ousted  from  any  court,  however 
grievously  he  offended  the  judges.  His  practice  lay 
equally  in  equity  and  at  common  law.  In  July 
1813  the  trial  of  John  Magee,  the  proprietor  of  the 
Dublin  Evening  Post,  for  a  libel  on  the  Duke  of 
Richmond,  gave  him  the  opportunity  of  his  greatest 
forensic  effort.  The  libel  in  question  had  been  written 
by  James  Scully,  though  some  of  Magee's  friends  even 
suggested  that  it  came  from  O'ConnelFs  hand.  As 
Peel  wrote  to  the  Speaker  Abbott,  the  prosecution  was 
intended  to  wrest  from  the  Catholic  Committee  its  most 
formidable  weapon,  the  Press.  If  Magee  gave  up  the 
writer's  name  he  would  become  the  enemy  of  the  Com- 
mittee ;  if  the  Committee  left  him  to  take  the  punish- 
ment himself,  it  would  become  the  enemy  of  Magee. 


CATHOLIC  DESPONDENCY.  57 

The  trial  took  place  in  the  hottest  hour  of  the  **  securi- 
ties "  controversy.  After  innumerable  wrangles  about 
challenges,  and  charges  of  misconduct  in  striking  the 
panel,  an  Orange  jury  was  sworn.  There  was  but  too 
good  a  reason  to  fear  that  the  jury  panel  had  been  tam- 
pered with.  John  Gifford,  a  bitter  and  bigoted  parti- 
san, whom  Lord  Hardwick,  when  Lord  Lieutenant,  had 
dismissed  from  the  Eegistrarship  of  the  Dublin  Custom 
House  for  his  violent  attacks  on  the  Catholics,  and  the 
Duke  of  Richmond,  during  his  term  of  oflBce,  had  re- 
instated as  Accountant-General  of  Customs,  had  said  of 
such  a  jury,  with  profane  glee,  in  the  previous  year,  "  If 
Our  Saviour  himself  were  in  the  dock  they  would  find 
him  guilty  if  it  served  their  party."  To  such  a  jury 
O'Connell  thought  it  useless  to  appeal,  and,  abandoning 
any  attempt  to  secure  an  acquittal,  he  devoted  himself 
to  a  lull  and  brilliant  exposition  and  defence  of  the 
Catholic  policy.  The  Chief  Justice  checked  him  and  said 
it  was  irrelevant.  **  You  heard  the  Attorney-General 
traduce  and  calumniate  us,"  cried  O'Connell,  fiercely ; 
**  you  heard  him  with  patience  and  with  temper — 
listen  now  to  our  vindication.'^  Such  a  course  was  not 
likely  to  help  Magee's  cause  much,  whatever  it  might 
do  for  the  Catholics.  He  was  convicted,  and  sentenced 
to  two  years*  imprisonment  and  a  fine  of  ;£500. 

But  through  these  years  O'Connell  was  chafing  im- 
patiently at  the  apathy  of  his  party  and  the  helplessness 
of  his  political  condition.  The  rarliamentary  position 
of  Emancipation  had  suffered  severely  by  the  loss  of 
the  Belief  Bill  of  1813.  It  was  not  mentioned  in  the 
sessioD  of  1814  ;  and  Parueirs  motion  on  presenting 
the  Catholic  petition  was  lost  in  1815  by  228  to  147, 
in  the  very  Parliament  which  had  been  in  its  favour  two 
years  before.     In  181G  Grattan's  motion  on  presenting 


58  LIFE  OF  DANIEL  0' CONN  ELL, 

the  petition  of  the  Vetoists  was  rejected  by  31.  In  1817 
the  hostile  majority  was  24;  in  1819  he  made  his  last 
effort  on  behalf  of  the  Catholics  and  was  defeated  in 
the  House  of  Commons  by  2  only  (243  to  241);  but  the 
Lords  remained  staunch  and  rejected  a  similar  motion  by 
147  to  106.  In  1820  Grattan  died  and  Plunket  suc- 
ceeded to  the  conduct  of  the  question.  On  the  28th 
February  1821,  in  the  greatest  of  all  his  speeches,  he 
moved  that  the  House  should  go  into  Committee  on  the 
Catholic  claims,  and  he  carried  his  motion  by  6  (227  to 
221).  On  March  7th  he  introduced  two  Bills,  one  of 
which  opened  to  Catholics  the  House  of  Commons  and 
all  offices  except  the  Lord  Chancellorship  and  the  Lord 
Lieutenancy,  and  the  other  gave  the  Crown  a  veto  on 
the  appointment  of  bishops  and  required  of  Catholic 
priests  an  oath  similar  to  that  of  1813.  The  two  Bills 
were  consolidated,  and  carried  by  216  to  197  in  April. 
But  the  Lords  were  immovable;  the  Duke  of  York  de- 
nounced it,  and  it  was  lost  by  39. 

O'Connell,  however,  concerned  himself  more  with 
Irish  than  with  English  feeling.  Willing  to  clutch  at 
any  straw  for  help,  he  proposed,  on  January  1st,  1821, 
in  one  of  the  public  letters  that  since  1819  he  had  pe- 
riodically addressed  through  the  Press  to  the  Irish 
people,  that  the  Catholics  should  ally  themselves  with 
the  English  working-class  democracy,  and  postpone 
Emancipation  to  Keform.  Sheil,  who  knew  better  the 
strength,  which  their  friends  proved  in  Parliament  six 
weeks  afterwards,  at  once  issued  a  strong  letter  against 
the  proposal,  denouncing  it  as  **  pernicious."  O'Con- 
nell  replied  on  January  12th  with  a  caustic  epistle, 
which  left  the  honours  of  controversy  with  him,  though 
in  judgment  and  common  sense  Sheil  had  the  best  of 
of  it. 


CATHOLIC  DESPONDENCY.  59 

In  the  autumn  George  IV.  paid  the  first  Royal  visit 
to  Ireland  since  the  reign  of  William  III.  He  landed 
on  the  12th  August,  and  was  received  with  accla- 
mations of  applause.  The  Catholics  founded  great 
political  hopes  on  so  rare  an  event.  O'Connell  and 
the  Ascendency  champion,  Bradley  King,  ex-Lord- 
Mayor,  were  reconciled.  A  political  banquet  was 
arranged,  at  which  Catholics  chose  the  Protestant 
stewards  and  Protestants  the  Catholics.  O'Connell,  who 
less  than  a  year  before  had  solicited  and  obtained 
the  Queen's  Attorney-Generalship  in  Ireland,  in  order, 
as  he  said,  *'  to  annoy  some  of  the  greatest  scoundrels 
in  society,  and,  of  course,  the  bitterest  enemies  of  Ire- 
land," now  declared  that  **  in  sorrow  and  in  bitterness 
he  had  for  the  last  fifteen  years  laboured  for  his  un- 
happy country.  One  bright  day  had  realised  all  his 
fond  expectations.  ...  It  was  said  of  St.  Patrick  that 
he  had  the  power  to  banish  venomous  reptiles  from  the 
isle,  but  His  Majesty  had  performed  a  greater  moral 
miracle.  The  sound  of  his  approach  had  allayed  the 
dissensions  of  centuries  "  ;  and  the  Catholics  presented 
an  address,  which  assured  the  King  that  "  you  are  hailed 
with  the  benedictions  of  an  enthusiastio  and  undis- 
sembling  people."  When  His  Majesty  departed, 
O'Connell  knelt  and  presented  him  with  a  laurel  wreath, 
which  his  sovereign  was  graciously  pleased  to  accept. 
To  tempt  His  Majesty  to  return,  he  started  a  subscrip- 
tion to  build  him  a  royal  palace ;  but  could  only  raise 
funds  suflicient  to  build  a  bridge.  He  founded  a  Boyal 
Georgean  Club  to  perpetuate  the  sentiments  of  amity 
which  the  royal  visit  liad  awakened.  But  the  bright 
hopes  of  1821  were  doomed  to  the  bitterest  disappoint- 
ment. The  winter  was  disgraced  by  outrage  and  dis- 
order  and  rendered   lamentable  by   famine.     In  1822 


60  LIFE  OF  DANIEL  0' CON  NELL. 

Plunket  did  not  venture  to  raise  the  Catholic  question. 
In  Dublin,  Catholic  and  Protestant  fell  to  their  quarrels 
as  before,  and  dissension  broke  out  among  the  Catholics 
themselves.  Their  temporary  unanimity  only  m^,de 
their  perennial  dissension  more  painful. 

At  tlie  beginning  of  1823  [said  Sheil  in  1827]  an  entire  cessa- 
tion of  Catholic  meetings  had  taken  place.  We  had  virtually  aban- 
doned the  question ;  not  only  was  it  not  debated  in  Parliament,  but 
in  Ireland  there  was  neither  Committee,  Board,  nor  Association.  The 
result  was  that  a  total  stagnation  of  public  feeling  took  place,  and 
I  do  not  exaggerate,  when  I  say  that  the  Catholic  question  was 
nearly  forgotten  ...  we  sat  down  like  galley-slaves  in  a  calm.  A 
general  stagnation  diffused  itself  over  the  the  national  feelings.  .  .  . 
What  was  the  result?  It  was  two-fold.  The  question  receded  in 
England,  and  fell  back  from  the  general  notice.  There  it  was  utterly 
forgotten,  while  in  Ireland  the  spirit  and  energy  of  the  people  un- 
derwent  an  utter  relaxation,  and  the  most  vigorous  efforts  were 
necessary  to  repair  all  the  moral  deterioration  which  the  whole 
body  of  the  Irish  Catholics  had  sustained. 


61 


CHAPTER   IV. 

THE    CATHOLIC   ASSOCIATION. 

1823-1828. 

The  germ  of  the  Catholic  Association— The  Catholic  Rent— The  Act 
of  1825— The  Relief  Bill  and  Wings  of  1825— The  Now  Catholic 
Association — The  Waterford  and  Clare  Elections. 

In  April  1823  O'CoiiDell  was  staying  at  Glencullen,  in 
the  Wicklow  Mountains,  at  the  house  of  his  friend 
Thomas  O'Mara.  Sheil,  with  whom  he  had  been  in 
not  unfrequent  conflict  during  the  previous  ten  years, 
and  a  few  other  friends  were  there.  To  them,  one 
evening  after  dinner,  he  broached  the  scheme  out 
of  which  grew  the  Catholic  Association  and  the  Catho- 
lic Relief  Act.  He  had  long  seen  that  the  disunion 
of  the  upper  and  educated  classes  was  the  bane 
■of  Catholic  politics.  Two  forces  there  were  which  had 
never  been  awakened  and  unchained — ^the  Priest  and  the 
Peasant.  The  i'ailure  of  the  hopes  which  the  King's 
visit  excited  determined  him  to  look  to  the  upper  classes 
no  longer :  from  thenceforth  he  would  go  to  the  people. 
He  conceived  the  plan  of  enlisting  tlie  enthusiasm  of 
the  whole  agricultural  population  of  Ireland,  while 
keeping  the  leadership  in  the  hands  of  the  educated 


62  LIFE  OF  DANIEL  O'GONNELL, 

classes,  by  means  of  a  gigantic  system  of  local  and 
central  organizations,  officered  by  the  priesthood  and 
controlled  from  Dublin.  The  funds,  which  an  agita- 
tion on  so  great  a  scale  would  demand,  were  more 
than  the  donations  of  the  opulent  could  raise ;  he 
determined  that  the  main  source  of  the  riches  of 
his  new  Association  should  be  the  poor.  All  classes 
were  to  be  admitted  to  it.  It  was  to  be  divided  into 
two  kinds  of  members,  those  who  paid  a  guinea  per 
annum  and  those  who  paid  a  shilling.  It  shows  how 
miserably  poor  the  Irish  were,  that  a  contribution 
of  a  farthing  per  week  should  have  been  enough  to 
make  each  member  feel  that  he  had  a  share  in  the  great 
Association.  Yet  two  years  later  it  was  proved  in 
evidence  that  wages  in  Ireland  were  but  fourpence  a 
day,  and  that  out  of  a  population  estimated  at  seven 
millions,  one  million  lived  by  mendicancy  or  plunder. 

The  moment  seemed  one  of  the  very  darkest  for  the 
hopes  of  Ireland  that  O'Connell,  at  least,  had  ever  seen. 
The  Irish,  whom  legislation  had  deprived  of  their  manu- 
factures, and  want  of  coal  had  prevented  from  regaining 
them,  were  a  purely  agricultural  community.  The  fall 
of  prices  upon  the  termination  of  the  long  war  had  pro- 
duced grave  distress  among  the  farmers.  This  had 
been  intensified  by  commercial  panics  and  the  deprecia- 
tion of  commercial  credit.  The  winter  of  1822  had 
been  marked  by  famine,  which  was  followed  by  pesti- 
lence. One-third  of  Clare  was  starving,  nor  was 
the  rest  of  the  south  and  west  better  off.  In  Cork 
120,000  persons  were  living  on  charity.  Crime,  too, 
was  rife  ;  366  persons  were  tried  by  special  commission 
at  Cork  alone,  and  thirty-five  of  them  were  sentenced 
to  death.  The  tentative  measure  of  Catholic  Relief 
which,  in   default  of  the   reintroduction   of  Plunket's 


THE  CATHOLIC  ASSOCIATION.  63 

Bill  of  1821,  Canning  had  brought  in  and  carried 
through  the  House  of  Commons,  was  ruthlessly  rejected 
by  the  House  of  Lords,  and  the  Lord-Lieutenancy  of 
Lord  Wellesley,  which  was  to  have  been  a  period  of 
reconciliation,  was  marked  by  fierce  outbreaks  of  sec- 
tarian animosity,  culminating  in  the  ludicrous  but 
discreditable  '*  Bottle  Riot  "  of  December  1822. 

A  preliminary  meeting,  which  a  few  gentlemen  were 
induced  to  attend,  was  held  at  Dempsey's  Tavern,  Sack- 
ville  Street,  on  April  25th,  1823.  From  May  12th  the 
meetings  were  held  at  Coyne's,  the  bookseller's,  at  4, 
Capel  Street,  in  a  mean  room  on  the  second  floor.  Rules 
were  framed  for  holding  public  debates  upon  a  Parlia- 
mentary model,  to  which  reporters  and  the  public  were 
to  be  admitted.  By  now  the  old  bitterness  of  the  veto 
controversy  had  had  nearly  ten  years  in  which  to  die 
out.  Some  of  those  who  had  shared  it  were  dead, 
others  had  forgotten  the  issue  which,  though  not  openly 
mentioned,  had  been  really  in  dispute,  whether  layman 
or  ecclesiastic  was  to  control  party  politics.  The  way 
for  united  action  was  open.  Slowly  peers,  prelates, 
priests,  and  peasants  gathered  round  the  young  Asso- 
ciation. Lord  Gormanstown  sacrificed  his  early  views 
to  join  it.  Lord  Killeen,  Lord  Fingal's  eldest  son,  and 
Lord  Kenmare,  became  members  of  it.  But  it  was  no 
aristocratic  movement;  it  was  in  truth  a  revolt  of  the 
democracy  against  the  aristocracy.  The  peasants  found 
that  their  complaints  and  grievances  were  listened  to,  and 
that  redress  was  always  promised  and  sometimes  ob- 
tained. The  Association  offered  them  legal  assistance 
against  the  law.  Emancipation  was  no  longer  a  move- 
ment which  was  only  to  benefit  and  did  only  touch  the 
upper  classes;  it  offered  to  the  poorest  a  bright  and 
indefinite  vista  of  relief  and  reformation.     The  priests 


64  LIFE  OF  DANIEL  O'CONNELL. 

who  had  hitherto  held  aloof  from  politics,  began, 
under  the  guidance  of  their  bishops,  to  take  part  in 
the  work  of  the  Association,  of  which  they  were  all  e.v 
officio  members.  By  the  end  of  1823  O'Connell's  hopes 
of  a  union  of  Catholic  feeling  began  to  be  justified. 

But  the  most  successful  of  all  the  devices  of  the  new 
organization  was  one  which  at  first  met  with  ridicule 
and  almost  failure.  In  the  days  of  the  old  Catholic 
Committee,  O'Connell  had  seen  the  need  of  a  more 
steady  and  more  abundant  revenue,  and  had  endea- 
voured, without  much  success,  to  organize  a  parochial 
subscription.  He  now  proposed,  by  the  methodical 
collection  of  the  smallest  subscriptions  from  the  poorest 
contributors,  at  the  same  time  to  enlist  the  enthusiasm 
of  multitudes,  and  to  raise  an  otherwise  unapproachably 
large  fund.     This  was  the  "  Catholic  Rent.'^ 

Yet  broad  as  was  this  scheme,  so  languid  was  the  in- 
terest that  the  new  association  at  first  excited,  that  even 
at  the  meeting  on  February  4th,  1824,  at  which  he  was 
to  introduce  his  proposal  for  establishing  the  Rent,  no 
quorum  appeared  for  five-and-twenty  minutes,  and  by 
the  rules  the  meeting  stood  adjourned  if  none  ap- 
peared in  half-an-hour.  O'Connell  rushed  out,  met 
an  eighth  man  on  the  stairs,  and,  darting  into  the  street, 
found  two  young  priests  from  Galway  gaping  in  at 
Coyne's  shop  windows.  Ex-officio  they  were  members. 
To  seize  them  by  the*  arms,  to  overbear  their  diffidence 
partly  by  force  and  partly  by  persuasion,  and  to  pull  them 
into  the  meeting  was  the  work  of  a  minute ;  the  quorum 
was  completed,  but  not  one  second  too  soon.  The  pro- 
posal was  made  and  duly  carried,  but  outside  the 
association  people  laughed  at  it.  His  schoolfellows 
taunted  O'Conuell's  son,  John,  with liis  father's  "penny- 
a-month  plan  for  liberating  Ireland." 


THE  CATHOLIC  ASSOCIATION.  65 

By  the  end   of  the  year,    however,  matters  wore  a 
diflferent  aspect.     The  rent  came  in  at  £350  a  week  in 
October,  at  £550  a  week  in  November,  and  at  £700  a 
week  in  December.     The  Association   hired   the   Corn 
Exchange  Rooms  at  £150  per  annum,    and  appointed 
iEneas  M'Donnell  its  parliamentary  agent  in  London  at 
a  salary  of  £300   a   year.     The    incessant   activity  of 
O'Connell  was  rapidly  making  the  Catholic  agitation, 
so  long  dormant,  once  more  troublesome  to  the  Govern- 
ment.    He  knew  that  he  was  treading  on  thin  ice  at 
every   step.      To    hold   language    at    once    passionate 
enough  to  inflame  a  people,  who  had  never  known  any 
alternatives  but  those  of  torpor  or  outrage,  and   also 
constitutional  enough  to  baulk  the  Government  upon  an 
indictment  for  sedition,  to  do  this  day  after  day  in  a 
multitude  of  meetings  and  harangues,  for  which  he  had 
not  an  instant's  leisure  to  prepare,  and  to  keep  in  check 
impulsive    and    unguarded   satellites,    and    tone    down 
their  indiscretions,  was  no  light   task.      Rare  as  was 
O'Conneli's  self-mastery  even  in  the  wild  excitement  of 
triumphant   oratory,    even    he  made    slips    sometimes. 
At  that  time  the  nascent  republics   of  South  America 
were  in  revolt  against  Spain,  and  Bolivar  was  one  of  the 
heroes  of  that  revolution.     On  December  IGth   1824, 
after  a  hard   day's  work  in  Court,  O'Connell  went  out 
to  address  a   meeting  in  the  Corn   Exohange,  and  re- 
ferred to  the  various  wars  of  liberty  then  in  progress  in 
the  world.     **  The  Greeks,"  he  »aid,  **  were  engaged  in 
warfare  for  the  defence  of  their  rights.      The   Roman 
Catholics   trusted   that  their   ends    would  be  procured 
through    more  peaceable  means.    He  hoped  that  Ire- 
land would  be  restored  to  her  rights ;    but  if   Ireland 
wore    driven    mad    by   persecution,    ho    hoped    a    new 
Bolivar  might  arise  to  defend  her."     This  occurred  on 

5 


66  LIFE  OF  DANIEL  O'CONNELL, 

Friday.  Late  on  Monday  afternoon,  as  he  was  sitting 
at  home  with  his  family.  Alderman  Darby  entered 
his  house  with  a  constable,  and  required  him  to  enter 
into  recognizances  to  appear  at  the  next  sessions, 
and  answer  a  charge  of  seditious  libel.  What  the  words 
imputed  were,  or  who  the  informer  was,  he  declined, 
under  superior  instructions,  to  say.  The  bill  wa» 
duly  preferred,  but  to  prove  the  words  used  was 
not  so  easy.  O'Connell  was  a  rapid  speaker.  The 
papers  complained  of  the  difficulty  of  reporting  a  man 
who  could  utter  two  hundred  words  a  minute  for  three 
or  four  hours  together.  The  Government  had  to  appeal 
to  the  press-reporters,  and  the  reporters  refused  assist- 
ance. On  December  21st,  Vousden  of  the  Dublin 
Morning  Post,  and  Leech  of  the  Freeman,  were  sum- 
moned by  the  police,  but  declined  to  produce  their 
notes,  or  to  depose  to  any  words  without  them.  Haydn, 
editor  of  the  ^lar,  declared  that  such  an  office  should 
not  be  put  upon  a  journalist.  The  reporter  of  Saun- 
ders^ News  Letter  was  called,  and  ingeniously  swore  that 
just  at  that  part  of  O'Connell's  speech  he  fell  asleep. 
To  this  comedy  there  was  but  one  issue.  The  Grand 
Jury  threw  out  the  bill. 

On  February  3rd  1825  the  session  of  Parliament 
opened.  The  King's  speech,  echoing  the  fears  of  many 
respectable  persons,  *' regretted  that  Associations  should 
exist  in  Ireland  which  have  adopted  proceedings  irre- 
concilable with  the  spirit  of  the  Constitution  '';  and 
this  was  followed  up  on  the  10th  by  Goulburn,  who  intro- 
duced a  bill  to  suppress  both  the  Catholic  Association 
and  the  Orange  Lodges.  In  less  than  a  month  it  was 
law.  By  O'Connell's  advice  the  Association  at  once 
dissolved.  It  held  its  last  meeting  on  March  18th,  and 
the  Government  breathed  again. 


THE  CATHOLIC  ASSOCIATION.  67 

But  in  the  meantime  the  cause  of  Emancipation 
was  making  progress  in  England.  A  deputation 
consisting  of  O'Connell,  O'Gorman,  Sheil,  and  others, 
had  been  appointed  on  10th  February  1825  to  go  to 
London  and  press  the  Catholic  claims.  O'Connell 
was  heard  at  the  Bar  of  the  Commons  as  counsel  for 
the  Catholics,  and  was  examined  before  a  Parlia- 
mentary Committee  on  March  9th.  *'  His  whole  de- 
portment," says  Lord  Colchester,  "  was  affectedly 
respectful,  except  in  a  few  answers,  when  he  dis- 
played a  fierceness  of  tone  and  aspect."  The  depu- 
tation was  entertained  at  dinner  by  Brougham,  and 
by  the  Duke  of  Norfolk,  and  they  addressed  a  Catholic 
meeting  at  the  Freemason's  Hall.  O'Connell,  who  on 
this  visit  first  became  known  to  the  English  public, 
remained  some  months  in  London,  and  on  May  2l8t 
argued  a  case  before  Lord  Eldon  in  the  House  of 
Lords,  who  found  him  **  not  so  shining  in  argument  as 
he  expected."  Meantime,  Parliament  had  seen  that  it 
was  impossible  to  suppress  the  Catholics'  organization 
and  to  do  nothing  for  their  claims.  Burdett  carried  a 
motion  in  tlieir  favour  in  March  by  247  to  234.  He 
introduced  a  Bill,  and  it  was  passed  on  the  second  read- 
ing  by  268  to  241.  A  great  impression  was  created 
when  Brownlow,  M.P.  for  Armagh,  and  afterwards  Lord 
Lurgan,  Maxwell,  M.P.  for  Downpatriok,  and  Forde, 
M.P.  for  Downshire,  hitherto  stout  Protestant  Ascen- 
dency men,  spoke  and  voted  in  its  favour.  As  the 
liberation  of  the  Catholics  seemed  now  to  be  close  at 
hand,  a  demand  arose  for  **  securities/*  and  two  Bills 
for  that  purpose,  called  **  the  Wings,'*  were  introduced, 
one  by  Littleton,  the  other  by  Lord  Francis  Levespn 
Gower.  Littleton's  Bill,  which  proposed  to  raise  the 
qualification  for  the  franchise  to  £*10,  was  carried  on  the 

6  • 


68  LIt'E  OF  DANIEL  O'CONNELL. 

second  reading  by  233  to  185  ;  Leveson  Gower's,  which 
provided  for  an  endowment  of  £250,000  per  annum  for 
the  Catholics,  by  205  to  162.  Burdett's  Bill  passed  the 
Commons  on  May  10th.  It  was  thought  the  Lords 
must  yield.  To  facilitate  matters  Peel  offered  to  resign, 
but  Liverpool  refused  his  resignation.  But  the  Lords 
proved  immovable.  The  Duke  of  York,  who  was  next 
in  succession  to  the  Crown,  declared,  in  presenting  a 
petition  from  the  Dean  and  Canons  of  Windsor,  that 
''  to  the  latest  moment  of  his  existence,  whatever  might 
be  his  station  in  life,  he  would  oppose  Catholic  Emanci- 
pation, so  help  him  God  I"  It  was  known  that  the  King 
pardoned  the  anticipation  of  his  demise  in  consideration 
of  the  piety  of  the  sentiment.  The  Duke  instantly 
became  the  most  popular  man  in  England,  and  the 
eponymous  founder  of  countless  public-houses ;  his 
words  were  blazoned  by  the  No  Popery  party  in  letters 
of  gold.  The  Lords  rallied  to  such  influences,  and  threw 
out  the  Bill  by  178  to  130. 

To  the  hopes  of  the  Catholics  this  double  disappoint- 
ment was  a  terrible  blow.  Nothing  less  than  O'Con- 
nell's  resourcefulness,  energy,  and  buoyancy,  could  have 
restored  them  to  composure.  The  Suppression  Act, 
which  he  instantly  dubbed  the  **  Algerine  Act,'^  had 
been  the  work  of  a  divided  Cabinet,  and  was  but 
loosely  drafted.  He  proceeded  to  found  a  New  Catholic 
Association,  whose  existence  was  a  standing  insult  to 
the  statute.  The  Act  rendered  any  society  illegal  if 
**  constituted  for  redress  of  grievances  in  Church  or 
State,  renewing  its  meetings  for  more  than  fourteen 
days,  or  collecting  or  receiving  money.''  In  July 
the  New  Catholic  Association  was  founded  exclusively 
for  purposes  of  public  and  private  charity  and 
**  for  all  purposes  not  forbidden  by  the  Act."      It   dis- 


THE  CATHOLIC  ASSOCIATION.  69 

claimed  any  action  for  the  redress  of  grievances,  the 
alteration  of  the  law,  or  the  prosecution  of  suits,  civil 
or  criminal.  It  was  to  have  neither  separate  parts  nor 
separate  branches,  neither  elected  delegates  nor  local 
secretaries.  Christians  of  all  denominations  were  ad- 
missible and  were  to  pay  an  annual  subscription  of  £1. 
Its  objects  were  to  promote  public  peace  and  private 
harmony,  to  encourage  religious  education,  to  provide 
Catholic  churches  and  graveyards,  to  promote  agricul- 
ture and  manufactures,  and  to  defend  the  Catholics  from 
untrue  aspersions  cast  on  their  faith  or  conduct.  For 
the  purposes  of  agitation,  aggregate  meetings  were  held 
entirely  apart  from  this  benevolent  association,  some  for 
one  day  only,  some  for  fourteen  days,  **  pursuant  to  the 
Act  of  Parliament,"  each  of  which  severally  arranged  for 
the  preparation  of  a  petition  and  dispersed.  The  New  As- 
sociation took  over  the  .£14,000  which  the  old  one  had 
in  hand  when  it  was  dissolved.  The  rent  was  collected 
as  before ;  most  persons  paid  in  their  money  '*  for  the 
relief  of  distressed  Catholics'';  O'Connell  his  **for  all 
purposes  allowable  by  law." 

The  Government  allowed  itself  to  be  trifled  with  by 
this  flimsy  evasion  of  the  Act.  It  cannot  be  that  they 
never  desired  to  put  their  new  powers  in  force.  One 
thing  seems  clear  :  if  to  pack  juries  and  to  dictate  sen- 
tences to  a  subservient  judiciary  had  really  been  the  cus- 
tomary procedure  of  the  Irish  Government,  it  is  incon- 
ceivable that  they  should  not  have  suppressed  this 
agitation  and  trusted  to  their  partisan  judges  and 
packed  juries  to  declare  their  conduct  within  the  Act. 
The  New  Catholic  Association  was  admittedly  and  noto- 
riously the  Old  Catholic  Association.  The  guise  of 
charity  was  a  mere  colourable  evasion  of  the  Act.  That 
Manners,  the  Chancellor,  and  Goulbum,  the  Chief  Secre- 


70  LIFE  OF  DANIEL  0*CONNELL. 

tary,  would  not  gladly  have  enforced  the  Act,  can  hardly 
be  doubted;  but  it  is  equally  clear  that  they  were  pre- 
vented from  doing  so  and  obliged  to  be  content  with  a 
posture  of  ridiculous  impotence,  by  their  respect  for  the 
letter  of  the  law,  and  by  their  inability  to  secure  either 
such  a  verdict  upon  the  facts  from  a  jury,  or  such  a 
construction  of  the  statute  from  the  bench,  as  would 
have  been  necessary  to  give  effect  to  the  indubitable  but 
ill-expressed  will  of  the  Legislature.  Their  conduct  at 
this  time  acquits  both  themselves  of  jury-packing  and 
the  judges  of  servility. 

The  Irish  had  borne  the  suppression  of  the  Catholic 
Association  with  comparative  composure  ;  but  the  rejec- 
tion of  the  Belief  Bill  and  the  adjurations  of  the  Duke 
of  York  filled  them  with  rage.  0*Connell,  while  in 
London,  had  been  in  close  league  with  Burdett  and  his 
friends,  and  indeed  went  so  far  as  to  write  to  the  news- 
papers claiming  the  authorship  of  the  Relief  Bill,  a 
claim  which  Tierney  repudiated  with  mortifying  expli- 
citness  in  the  House  of  Commons.  Following  the 
unfortunate  precedent  of  1808  of  secretly  negotia- 
ting with  the  Parliamentary  party  without  any  com- 
munication with  the  party  in  Ireland,  he  had  assented 
to  the  Wings,  both  the  one  which  disfranchised 
the  forty-shilling  freeholders,  and  that  which  pro- 
vided for  the  payment  of  the  clergy.  For  this  aban- 
donment of  principle,  the  Irish  priests  on  his  return  to 
Ireland  took  him  severely  to  task.  It  was  only  by 
prompt  and  even  abject  renunciation  and  contrition, 
that  he  recovered  his  lost  ground.  He  disavowed  the 
Wings  and  threw  himself  actively  into  the  agitation. 
The  great  thing  to  be  aimed  at  was  to  keep  alive  the 
interest  of  the  Catholics,  to  arrest  their  attention,  to 
keep    them   in    motion ;    a   precise    goal    and  definite 


THE  CATHOLIC  ASSOCIATION.  71 

achievement  was  of  less  iraportance.  Even  at  the  risk 
of  provoking  hostility,  O'Connell  was  anxious  to  keep 
up  the  heat  of  his  followers*  enthusiasm  :  **  An  enemy/* 
says  Wyse,  **  is  nearer  to  conversion  than  a  neutral." 
The  Protestants  began  to  appear  on  Catholic  platforms  ; 
there  was  too  much  condescending  patronage  on  their 
side,  too  much  fulsome  adulation  on  O'Conneirs,  but 
the  fact  was  important.  More  and  more  strongly  the 
priests  became  identified  with  the  Association ;  they 
collected  the  rent ;  the  meetings  were  held  in  their 
chapels  and  the  platforms  set  up  before  their  altars.  A 
series  of  provincial  aggregate  meetings  was  held,  at 
Limerick  in  1825,  at  Cork  and  Waterford  in  1826,  at 
Clonmel  in  1828.  To  keep  constantly  before  the  public 
mind  the  vast  disparity  in  the  numbers  of  Catholics 
and  Protestants,  Shiel  suggested  a  religious  census,  to 
be  taken,  parish  by  parish,  by  the  clergy.  An 
affiliated  Catholic  Association  was  formed  in  New  York, 
and  American  subscriptions  began  to  come  in.  Foreign 
opinion  was  appealed  to  and  the  proceedings  of  the 
Association  were  sent  to  foreign  Governments.  The 
Catholics  aspired  to  have  a  foreign  policy  ;  and  they 
gratified  their  taste  for  splendour  by  adopting  a  uni- 
form or  costume,  of  blue,  gold,  and  white,  of  velvet 
and  of  silk.  The  English  were  surprised  at  this 
awakening  of  Irish  feeling  and  universal  activity  ;  but 
a  greater  surprise  was  to  come. 

Of  tho  Protestant  territorial  magnates,  whose  wide 
possessions  and  family  influence  seemed  to  give  them  a 
prescriptive  and  indefeasible  title  to  direct  the  issue  of 
Irish  elections,  none  were  so  powerful  as  the  I^eresfords 
in  county  Waterford.  They  had  controlled  the  county 
time  out  of  mind  ;  they  had  held  tho  seat  for  the  city  for 
seventy  years.     Upon  the  register  they  had  an  immense 


72  LIFE  OF  DANIEL  OrCONMELL, 

majority  of  votes  at  their  beck  and  call.  The  Marquis 
of  Waterford  lived  on  his  estates  and  had  done  much 
to  earn  Catholic  good-will.  He  had  introduced  the 
Catholic  Belief  Bill  in  the  Irish  House  of  Lords  in 
1793,  and  had  been  conspicuous  for  his  humanity  when 
in  command  of  the  Waterford  Regiment  of  Yeomanry 
during  the  rebellion  of  1798.  A  trivial  circumstance, 
arising  out  of  a  proposed  address  to  the  Lord  Lieute- 
nant after  the  "  Bottle  Riot  '^  had  made  him  for  the  time 
unpopular  with  some  of  the  Protestant  gentry. 

The  general  election  of  1826  was  at  hand,  and  it  was 
decided  to  oppose  his  candidate,  the  sitting  member, 
Lord  George  Beresford.  Villiers  Stuart,  afterwards 
Lord  Stuart  of  the  Decies,  a  young  squire  of  good 
family  but  moderate  means,  was  asked  to  stand.  He 
posted  home  from  the  Tyrol  and  issued  his  address.  The 
Beresfords  replied  with  indiscreet  and  irritating  counter- 
addresses,  denouncing  clerical  influence.  The  priests 
in  turn  became  the  most  active  and  most  successful  of 
canvassers  for  Stuart.  They  menaced  with  the  guilt  of 
perjury  those  who  voted  against  their  consciences  to 
please  their  landlords.  Every  chapel  became  a  centre  of 
agitation.  Four  thousand  troops  were  poured  into  the 
county  and  had  nothing  to  do  ;  in  vast  orderly  proces- 
sions the  forty- shilling  freeholders  moved  about  the 
country  or  attended  Stuart^s  meetings,  without  disorder 
or  crime.  Chiefly  to  give  him  a  locus  sta?idi  for  a 
speech,  O^Connell,  who  was  Stuart's  counsel,  was  put 
in  nomination  for  the  county,  and  after  speaking  two 
hours  retired  in  his  client's  favour.  It  was  the  first 
nomination  of  a  Catholic  ever  known,  and  the  precedent 
was  significant.  The  people  of  Kilmacthomas  had 
drummed  Lord  George  out  of  the  village  ;  the  people  of 
Portlaw,  which  lay  at  the  gates   of  the  Marquis'   castle, 


THE  CATHOLIC  ASSOCIATION.  73 

claimed  the  privilege  of  going  first  to  the  poll  to  vote 
against  their  landlord.  There  was  a  majority  against 
the  Marquis  on  the  first  day,  mainly  composed  of  his 
own  freeholders;  on  the  fifth  Lord  George  retired. 
The  contest  had  begun  as  a  forlorn  hope  ;  it  had  passed 
into  a  determined  battle  ;  it  ended  in  a  complete  vic- 
tory. The  effect  was  immense.  Bat  that  the  Wexford 
election  had  been  decided  before  that  in  Waterford,  the 
Catholics  would  have  carried  that  county.  An  obscure  bar- 
rister named  Alexander  Dawson,  without  effort  and  with 
but  three  days'  notice,  carried  Louth,  and  the  dismayed 
Orange  candidates  were  left  to  struggle  for  the  second 
place.  Westmeath  was  won ;  two  Emancipators  were 
returned  for  Armagh,  and  Monaghan  was  wrested  from 
its  hereditary  representatives,  the  Leslies,  the  Blayneys, 
and  the  Shirleys.  It  was  the  revolt  of  the  forty-shilling 
freeholders  against  their  masters.  The  landlords  had 
created  them  to  increase  their  own  importance,  and  now 
found  the  creature  rising  against  the  creator.  For  thirty 
years  Frankenstein's  monster  had  been  a  submissive 
slave  ;  but  now  he  had  turned  on  his  master  and  had 
rent  him. 

The  landlords  thus  defeated  began  to  threaten  and  in 
some  cases  to  carry  out  ejectments  for  non-payment  of 
the  long  arrears,  which  were  kept  for  this  purpose  hang- 
ing over  the  heads  of  the  forty-shilling  freeholders. 
The  Catholic  Association  interfered  to  protect  its  clients. 
It  threatened  to  buy  up  outstanding  judgments  and  to 
procure  the  foreclosure  of  mortgages  against  landlords, 
who  acted  in  this  way.  It  carried  on  an  active  regis- 
tration of  votes  in  the  Catholic  interest  and  looked,  at 
another  election,  to  carry  three-fourths  of  the  Irish 
seats.  It  established  Protecting  Committees  in  the 
counties  which   had  been  recently  contested,  and  col- 


74  LIFE  OF  DANIEL  0' CONN  ELL, 

lected  a  **  New  Eent ''  for  the  relief  of  evicted  tenants. 
The  old  rent  reached  vast  proportions,  ^16,000  to 
March  1825,  i96,260  more  to  December  1826,  and 
d93,000  for  1827.  In  1828  it  was  ^'21,400  ;  in  two 
months  of  1829,  ^65,300.  But  it  was  imperfectly 
collected,  and  having  been  left  too  much  to  casual  and 
volunteer  effort,  often  to  busy  priests,  had  never  ap- 
proached the  desired  £50,000  per  annum.  O'Connell 
proposed  a  strict  parochial  organization.  Two  church- 
wardens were  to  be  appointed  in  every  parish,  one  by  the 
priest  and  the  other  by  the  people,  to  collect  the  rent. 
They  were  to  send  up  to  Dublin  monthly  reports  in  a 
prescribed  form,  giving  particulars  as  to  the  Catho- 
lic rent  and  census,  the  Church  cess  and  tithes,  evictions 
of  tenants  and  attempts  at  proselytism.  That  too  much 
might  not  bo  left  to  the  initiative  of  the  churchwardens, 
local  associations  were,  on  Wyse's  proposal,  formed  in 
each  parish,  to  look  after  the  wardens  ;  an  association  in 
each  county  controlled  the  parish  clubs,  and  all  were 
subject  to  the  central  association.  The  Weekly  Kegister 
of  the  Association's  proceedings  circulated  to  the  num- 
ber of  6,000,  and  was  read  aloud  by  the  wardens  at 
chapel  after  mass.  The  central  association  supplied 
journals  to  the  country  branches.  In  nine  years  the  cir- 
culation of  newspapers  in  Ireland  increased  25  percent. 
These  clubs  were  founded  in  every  county  in  Munster, 
and  in  most  of  those  in  Leinster  and  Connaught,  and 
enforced  a  strict  maintenance  of  the  peace  and  obser- 
vance of  the  law.  By  this  means,  on  21st  January  1828, 
simultaneous  meetings  were  held  in  no  less  than  fifteen 
hundred  parishes  ;  and  the  meetings  were  held  without 
the  slightest  disorder. 

When  Canning  took  office  in  1827,  he  sent  a  private 
message  to  the  Catholic  Association,  begging  them  for  the 


TBE  CATHOLIC  ASSOCIATION.  75 

8ake  of  English  opinion  to  be  temperate,  and  promising  in 
that  case  to  do  his  best  for  their  claims.  The  Catho- 
lic Association  refused  to  moderate  its  tone.  The  acces- 
sion to  office  of  the  Duke  of  Wellington,  on  Goderich's 
resignation,  was  regarded  as  the  accession  of  a  Catholic 
foe.  The  Association  passed  a  resolution  binding  itself  to 
oppose  with  all  its  force  any  Irish  member  who  took  office 
under  him.  The  Catholics,  in  spite  of  the  stubborn  resis- 
tance to  Emancipation  of  the  bulk  of  the  English  Dis- 
senters, had  always  supported  their  cause,  and  800,000 
signatures  were  procured  by  O'Connell  to  a  petition  for 
the  repeal  of  the  Test  and  Corporation  Acts.  In  1828, 
when  this  had  been  carried.  Lord  John  Kussell  wrote 
to  the  Association,  desiring  it,  now  that  the  principle  of 
Emancipation  had  thus  triumphed,  to  withdraw  the 
anti-Wellington  pledge.  0*Connell  urged,  as  he  had 
urged  the  year  before,  that  the  advice  should  be  taken. 
Again  he  was  overruled.  For  the  Association  saw  now 
that  not  to  go  forward  was  to  go  back,  and  the  pledge 
was  insisted  on. 

An  opportunity  for  acting  on  the  resolution  soon 
arrived.  The  East  Retford  dispute  led  to  the  resigna- 
tion of  Huskisson,  and  among  the  Ministerial  changes 
which  followed  was  the  appointment  to  the  Board  of 
Trade  of  Vesey  Fitzgerald,  M.P.  for  Clare.  His  re- 
election seemed  certain.  He  belonged  to  an  old  and 
popular  family.  His  father,  Prime  Serjeant  Fitzgerald, 
had  voted  against  the  Act  of  Union.  He  himself  had 
consistently  voted  in  favour  of  Emancipation.  Both 
father  and  son  were  excellent  landlords.  He  had  behind 
him  the  Ministerial  influence  and  the  whole  body  of  the 
landlords  of  Clare.  The  resolution  of  the  Catholic 
Association  bound  them  to  oppose  him,  but  they 
despaired  of  success.     Steele,  however,  and  The  O'Gor 


76  LIFE  OF  DANIEL  O'CONNELL. 

man  Mahon,  who  were  magistrates  for  the  county, 
posted  down  to  see  what  could  be  done.  Arriving 
at  Limerick  on  a  Sunday  morning,  they  found  that 
personal  obligations  to  the  Fitzgeralds  prevented  Major 
Macnamara,  who  was  to  have  been  their  candidate, 
from  opposing  the  new  minister.  They  hurried  on 
into  Clare,  holding  hasty  meetings  at  the  chapels,  and 
by  night  joined  Lawless  at  Ennis.  Everywhere  they 
found  a  general  enthusiasm  for  a  contest  among  the 
peasantry.  To  the  contemptuous  amazement  of  Fitz- 
gerald's party,  Steele  remained  to  urge  that  if  no 
gentleman  would  come  forward  some  grave-digger  should 
be  put  up.  O'Gorman,  half-dead  with  fatigue,  posted 
back  to  Dublin  to  beat  up  a  candidate.  Lord  William 
Paget  was  applied  to,  and  refused.  On  the  21st  of 
June,  Shell  declared  at  the  meeting  of  the  Association 
that  someone  absolutely  must  stand.  O'Oonnell  was 
inclined  to  dread  the  effect  of  a  defeat.  Next  day,  in 
the  early  morning,  Sir  David  Roose,  ex-High  Sheriff  of 
Dublin  and  a  Tory,  met  Fitzpatrick  in  the  street  by 
chance,  and  suggested  that  a  Catholic,  O'Oonnell  him- 
self, should  be  the  candidate.  Fitzpatrick  remembered 
that  years  before  he  had  heard  Keogh  suggest  a  similar 
thing;  he  caught  at  the  idea,  rushed  to  the  Association 
Rooms  and  made  the  proposal.  Then  followed  two 
hours  of  hesitation.  They  saw  the  advantage  of  getting 
on  their  side  the  innate  English  respect  for  the  formal 
result  of  an  election,  even  though  the  elected  person 
be  ineligible,  and  they  decided  to  take  the  chance. 
The  die  was  cast.  By  the  end  of  the  week  Steele,  in 
Clare,  knew  that  he  would  have  no  need  to  put  up  any 
grave-digger;  the  candidate  would  be  the  most  popular 
Catholic  in  Ireland.  O'Connell  issued  his  address  on 
the  24th.     It  was  marked  by  a  pledge   **  to  bring  the 


THE  CATHOLIC  ASSOCIATION.  77 

question  of  the  Repeal  of  the  Union  at  the  earliest 
possible  period  before  the  consideration  of  the  legisla- 
ture." It  was  foreseen  that  the  cost  of  the  election 
would  be  heavy,  but  i'2,000  was  collected  in  Dublin  in 
one  day,  and  £14,000  in  ten.  O'Connell  himself  could 
not  leave  Dublin  till  the  last  moment,  but  Sheil  and 
O'Gorman  went  down  to  Clare  at  once.  Then  followed 
one  of  the  most  singular  scenes  in  the  history  of  Ire- 
land. O'Gorman  announced  his  williDgness  to  fight 
any  squire,  who  felt  aggrieved  at  seeing  his  tenants  can- 
vassed, and  proceeded  to  canvass  the  tenants.  Shiel 
went  from  chapel  to  chapel,  and  '*  made  every  altar  a 
tribune.**  The  priests  exerted  themselves  for  O'Connell 
almost  to  a  man.  One,  indeed,  sided  with  Fitzgerald, 
and  the  people  stopped  his  stipend.  On  the  other 
hand,  every  Whig  and  Tory  landlord  supported  Fitz- 
gerald. He  was  nominated  by  Sir  Edward  O'Brien, 
and  O^Connell  only  by  Steele.  The  candidates  ad- 
dressed the  freeholders.  Fitzgerald  wept  before  them, 
and  his  tears  touched  their  emotional  hearts.  O'Con- 
nell replied  with  a  virulent  attack,  calling  him  the 
**  friend  of  the  base  and  bloody  Perceval,''  who,  though 
he  had  been  fourteen  years  in  his  grave,  and  had  died 
by  an  assassin's  hand,  was  still  not  safe  from  abuse. 
The  polling  days  arrived.  Vandeleur  of  Kilrush  drove 
into  Ennis  at  the  head  of  his  three  hundred  tenants, 
and  under  their  landlord's  eye  they  cheered  O'Connell 
and  broke  away  to  poll  for  him.  Sir  Edward  O'Brien 
was  bringing  up  his  men,  when  Father  Murphy  of 
Corofin  met  them,  and  with  a  few  words  gathered  the 
sheep  into  O'Connell's  fold.  One  look  of  a  priest 
converted  the  tenants  of  Augustine  Butler.  At  the 
close  of  one  day's  voting  a  vast  crowd  was  waiting 
anxiously  to  hear  the  state  of  the  poll.    Up  rose  a  gaunt 


78  LIFE  OF  DANIEL  O'CONNELL. 

priest,  who  announced  that  a  Catholic  had  voted  for 
Fitzgerald.  The  crowd  set  up  a  yell  of  hatred. 
**  Silence,"  cried  the  priest ;  **  the  hand  of  God  has 
struck  him  ;  he  has  just  died  of  apoplexy.  Pray  for 
his  soul !"  The  awe-stricken  multitude  fell  on  its 
knees  in  silent  prayer.  During  those  July  nights 
thirty  thousand  men  bivouacked  in  the  meadows  about 
Ennis,  and  no  case  of  disorder  occurred.  The  only 
man  who  got  drunk  was  O'Connell's  English  coach- 
man. Clare  had  been  pre-eminent  among  Irish  coun- 
ties for  faction-fighting ;  in  that  county  hereditary  foes 
espied  one  another  only  to  commence  a  violent  riot. 
During  the  whole  election  not  the  slightest  affray  took 
place.  Lord  x\nglesey  had  massed  troops  upon  the 
place.  There  were  three  hundred  police  in  Ennis  ;  up- 
wards of  two  thousand  troops  were  within  call,  and 
thirteen  hundred  more  only  thirty-six  hours  distant. 
Not  a  corporal's  guard  was  required.  From  the  first 
the  contest  was  hopeless.  As  Fitzgerald  wrote  to  Peel, 
he  had  polled  '*  all  the  gentry  and  all  the  ^950  free- 
holders— the  gentry  to  a  man,"  but  out  of  8,000 
electors  all  but  200  were  forty-shilling  freeholders.  On 
the  first  day  O'Connell  was  six  votes  ahead,  on  the 
third  almost  a  thousand.  On  the  fifth  Fitzgerald  with- 
drew, and  O'Connell  was  member  for  Clare. 


79 


CHAPTER  V. 

EMANCIPATION. 

1828-1842. 

Result  of  the  Clare  Election — Dissolution  of  the  Catholic  Association — 
Catholic  Relief — Refusal  of  O'Connell's  claim  to  take  his  seat — 
Second  Clare  Election — Repeal  Agitation — Conflict  with  the  Mar- 
quis of  Anglesey — Reform. 

The  first  question  which  had  presented  itself  to  the 
Wellington  Administration  in  1828,  had  been  the  re- 
newal of  the  Coercion  Act  of  1825.  It  expired  with 
the  session  of  1828,  and  must  either  be  renewed,  or 
allowed  quietly  to  lapse.  It  had  been  a  failure.  Neither 
the  Catholic  agitation  nor  the  Orange  processions,  at 
which  it  was  aimed,  had  been  touched  by  it.  The 
Marquis  of  Anglesey  advised  the  Ministry  not  to  stir ; 
there  were  dissensions,  he  said,  among  the  Catholics  of 
Ireland,  who  were  not  unanimous  in  supporting  the 
Association,  and  there  were  jealousies  within  its  ranks. 
The  prelates  looked  askance  at  its  influenoe  with  the 
parochial  clergy,  and  the  landlords  at  its  sway  over 
their  tenanls.  The  country  was  quiet.  A  new  Act 
would  be  difficult  to  frame,  and  could  only  be  passed  at 
the  cost  of  now  conflicts.  Upon  this  advice  they  de- 
cided to  take  the  risk  of  dropping  the  Act,  and  to  let 
sleeping  dogs  lie. 


80  LIFE  OF  DANIEL  O'CONNELL, 

But  the  Clare  election  changed  the  whole  face  of 
affairs.  O'Connell  returned  to  Dublin  amid  the  trium- 
phant acclamations  of  the  whole  country  through 
which  he  passed.  As  soon  as  the  Act  lapsed,  the  old 
Catholic  Association  was  instantly  re-established,  and 
at  the  same  time  the  Orange  lodges,  which  it  had  sup- 
pressed, also  formed  themselves  again.  The  Catholics 
were  active  in  agitation,  but  so  were  the  Protestants. 
They  established,  up  and  down  the  country,  Bruns- 
wick Clubs,  which  held  language  as  violent  as  that 
of  the  Association,  and  by  their  proceedings  drove 
many  of  the  Protestant  Liberals,  who  had  hitherto  held 
aloof  from  politics,  into  the  arms  of  the  Catholics. 
The  Association,  in  return,  decided  to  extend  its  opera- 
tions into  Ulster,  and  despatched  **  honest  Jack  Law- 
less "  as  its  emissary  to  the  North.  Meetings  were  still 
an  attractive  novelty  in  Ulster,  and  agitation  was  still 
fresh  there,  and  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Dundalk  he 
was  highly  successful ;  but  when  he  announced  his  in- 
tention of  entering  the  '*  black  north  ^'  at  Ballybay,  co. 
Monaghan,  with  140,000  enthusiasts  in  his  train,  some 
fifteen  thousand"^  Orangemen  mustered  to  resist  him. 
This  was  on  the  22nd  of  September.  The  magistrates 
of  the  locality  called  on  General  Thornton,  the  officer 
in  command  of  the  district,  to  interpose  between  the  two 
hosts,  and  Lawless,  finding  his  senses  or  losing  his 
nerve,  took  to  his  heels.  Never  was  Ireland  nearer  to 
a  conflagration.  The  peasantry  of  Tipperary  had  aban- 
doned their  faction- fights  to  prepare  for  more  serious 
work.  In  August  a  great  provincial  meeting  had  been 
held  at  Clonmel.     A   disciplined  levy  of  the  peasants 

*  So  Wyse,  but  the  Chief  Secretary  wi'ote  to  Peel,  on  Oct.  6,  that 
the  Protestants  numbered  1,700. 


EMANCIPATION,  81 

en  7nasse  marched  into  the  town,  50,000  strong,  wearing 
green  cockades  and  green  uniforms,  preceded  by  bands, 
and  commanded  by  officers.  Uniforms  were  so  com- 
mon, that  one  Cork  firm  alone  sold  ^9600  worth  of 
green  calico  for  the  purpose.  In  addressing  this  meet- 
ing, O'Connell  had  used  language  of  the  most  unwise 
violence.  The  Orangemen  had  talked  of  armed  suppres- 
sion of  the  Catholic  movement.  **  Would  to  God,''  cried 
O'Connell,  "  our  excellent  Viceroy,  Lord  Anglesey, 
would  only  give  me  a  commission ;  and  if  those  men  of 
blood  should  attempt  to  attack  the  property  and  per- 
sons of  His  Majesty's  loyal  subjects,  with  a  hundred 
thousand  of  my  brave  Tipperary  boys,  I  would  soon 
drive  them  into  the  sea  before  me."  The  fierce 
yell  of  applause  which  followed  his  words  showed  how 
his  hearers  hungered  for  the  fray.  It  was  known  that 
there  were  stores  of  arms  hidden  in  the  mountains,  and 
all  through  September  the  marching  and  counter-march- 
ing of  these  strange  armies  went  on.  Had  Lawless 
provoked  bloodshed  at  Ballybay,  it  is  the  opinion  of 
Wyse,  the  historian  of  the  Catholic  Association,  writing 
at  the  time,  that  there  would  have  followed  in  the  south 
of  Ireland  *'  another  Sicilian  Vespers." 

The  Lord  Lieutenant  was  neither  an  alarmist  nor  a 
tyrant ;  he  was  a  oool  soldier,  and  a  friend  of  Emanci- 
pation, but  he  foreboded  insurrection.  He  filled  the 
district  with  troops,  but  he  knew  that  his  troops  were 
wavering  in  their  loyalty.  English  regiments  bad  been 
largely  recruited  with  Irishmen,  and  Protestant  ones 
with  Catholics.  The  contagion  of  popular  enthusiasm 
had  seized  upon  the  soldiers.  The  priests  had  been  at 
work  among  tiiom,  and  they  were  becoming  divided  into 
religious  factions.  As  early  as  July  he  had  asked  for 
the  removal  of  Irish  soldiers  and  the  despatch  of  Scotch 

6 


82  LIFE  OF  DANIEL  O'CONNELL, 

regiments  to  Ireland.  Without  the  concession  of 
Catholic  Relief,  he  said,  he  could  not  answer  for  the 
peace  of  the  country  for  longer  than  until  Parliament 
met.  The  leaders  "could  lead  on  the  people  to  rebel- 
lion at  a  moment's  notice,"  and  **the  probability  of 
present  tranquillity  rests  upon  the  forbearance  oF 
O'Connell." 

O'Connell  himself  saw  that  an  outbreak  meant  ab- 
solute ruin  to  the  Catholic  cause  on  the  very  eve  of  its 
final  triumph.  As  yet  there  had  been  no  disturbance  ; 
but  a  spark  might  kindle  a  civil  war,  which  the  Govern- 
ment might  be  unable  to  quell.  He  recalled  Lawless 
from  the  North ;  he  issued  a  manifesto  to  the  people 
of  Tipperary  commanding  peace,  and  directing  the  for- 
mation of  companies  of  one  hundred  and  twenty  men, 
each  to  be  under  a  **  pacificator,"  who  was  required  to 
be  a  communicant,  and  two  *'  regulators  "  appointed  by 
him,  all  three  to  be  jointly  responsible  for  the  conduct 
of  their  men.  The  effect  was  magical ;  almost  without 
a  struggle  the  agitation  disappeared.  "  Divisions  of 
1,000  or  1,500  marching  in  uniform  to  the  place  of  ren- 
dezvous in  ignorance  of  what  had  happened,  were  met 
on  their  way  by  a  copy  of  the  address,  and  instantly 
retraced  their  steps  in  peace.  Others  who  had  actually 
assembled,  separated,  and  departed  quietly  to  their 
homes." 

But  in  spite  of  this  obedience,  Catholic  feeling  con- 
tinued to  be  intensely  embittered.  In  November,  one  of 
the  directors  of  the  Wexford  Provincial  Bank,  a  highly 
respectable  institution  managed  jointly  by  Catholics 
and  Protestants,  had  attended  a  meeting  of  a  Brunswick 
Club.  In  revenge  for  this  the  Catholics  secretly  con- 
certed a  run  on  the  bank.  Immense  numbers  of  its 
notes  were  simultaneously  presented  for  payment.     The 


EMANCIPATION.  83 

bank  had  to  obtain  in  a  single  week  £1,500,000  in 
gold.  The  movement  threatened  to  spread  to  Clonmel 
and  Kilkenny,  but  fortunately  it  was  stayed.  About 
the  same  time,  Ford,  a  Catholic  solicitor,  proposed  a 
resolution  in  the  Catholic  Association  in  favour  of 
exclusive  dealing  with  Catholic  tradesmen,  and  it 
was  with  diflBculty  that  his  motion  was  shelved  in  De- 
cember. At  such  a  moment  proceedings  like  these 
would  have  been  suicidal.  As  it  was,  such  uneasiness 
was  awakened  among  commercial  men,  that  in  the  fol- 
lowing March,  though  the  banks  of  issue  were  highly 
solvent  concerns,  they  felt  obliged  to  hold  very  nearly 
i>5,000,000  in  specie  to  protect  a  note  circulation  of 
but  £7,000,000  in  all. 

Meantime  the  Ministry  had  been  undergoing  deep 
searchings  of  heart.  It  was  supposed  to  have  been 
constituted  upon  an  anti-Catholic  basis.  Peel  had  long 
been  the  ablest  and  best  exponent  of  the  argument 
against  Emancipation.  To  his  logical  mind  it  followed 
that  Emancipation  must  lead  to  the  overthrow  of  Pro- 
testant ascendency.  To  relieve  the  Catholics  from  dis- 
abilities in  law,  and  to  enforce  them  in  fact,  by  refusing 
to  appoint  persons  of  that  religion  to  office  under  the 
Crown,  was  to  him  irrational.  But  his  experience  at 
the  Irish  Office  had  led  him  to  believe  that  the  appoint- 
ment of  Catholics  was  incompatible  with  national 
security.  At  the  same  time,  his  was  a  highly  constitu- 
tional mind,  and  the  Clare  election  showed  him  that  his 
position  was  fast  becoming  constitutionally  indefensible. 
The  parliament  of  1826  had  been  elected  upon  an  ex- 
press **  No  Popery  **  cry ;  but  when  the  question  came 
for  the  first  time  before  it  in  1827,  they  rejected  Bur- 
dett's  motion  for  a  committee  on  the  Catholic  claims 
by  but  four  votes  in  540,  and,  after  the  success  of  Rus- 

6  • 


84  LIFE  OF  DANIEL  O'GONNELL, 

sell's  proposals  in  1828,  Burdett  obtained  in  May  a 
majority  of  six  in  its  favour.  Even  its  opponents  no 
longer  ventured  to  say  that  things  could  remain  as  they 
were.  Dawson,  Peel's  brother-in-law,  M.P.  for  Derry, 
and  one  of  the  leaders  of  the  Ulster  Protestants,  in  a 
Speech  afterwards  called  ^'  Peel's  pilot  balloon,"  owned, 
after  O'Connell's  election,  that  the  time  for  concession 
had  arrived.  Left  to  itself,  the  House  of  Commons 
would  probably  have  passed  a  Catholic  Belief  Act  at 
any  time  during  the  last  fifteen  years,  and  although  the 
stiff  Protestant  party  was  very  strong  in  the  country, 
especially  in  the  Midlands  and  West,  the  true  centre  of 
resistance  was  in  the  House  of  Lords  and  the  Royal 
Family.  For  a  generation  past  all  the  most  distin- 
guished men  in  the  House  of  Commons,  except  Peel 
himself,  had  been  against  the  disabilities.  A  majority  of 
the  representatives  in  each  of  the  great  counties  of 
Yorkshire,  Lancashire,  Middlesex,  Kent,  Surrey,  and 
Devon,  a  moiety  of  those  of  London,  Liverpool,  Leices- 
ter, Coventry,  and  Norwich,  and  the  whole  of  those  of 
Westminster,  Southwark,  Newcastle,  Chester,  Derby, 
and  Preston,  were  Emancipationists.  But  the  Clare 
election  produced  a  still  greater  effect.  With  their 
eyes  open  the  electors  had  chosen  a  man  whose  right  to 
take  his  seat  was  highly  doubtful,  and  would  certainly 
be  denied.  They  had  known  their  strength  too  well  to 
be  violent.  At  a  moment  of  wild  excitement,  in  a 
county  that  had  never  been  orderly  before,  complete 
order  had  prevailed.  Above  all,  the  election  marked  a 
silent  but  constitutional  revolution,  a  complete  trans- 
ference of  power  from  the  class  on  whom  the  whole 
fabric  of  Protestant  exclusiveness  had  rested,  to  the 
class  which  Protestantism  had  trampled  under  foot.  The 
landlord  was  dethroned,  and  the  priest  reigned  in   his 


EMANCIPATION.  85 

stead.  Peel  had  to  ask  himself  what  was  to  be  done. 
Civil  government  was  paralysed  and  brought  into  con- 
tempt by  the  existing  state  of  things.  The  authority 
which  kept  the  peace  of  Ireland,  such  as  it  was,  was 
that  of  the  Catholic  Association,  and  not  the  king's. 
During  the  autumn  of  1828  England  was  at  peace  with 
all  the  world ;  her  regular  infantry  force  in  the  United 
Kingdom  was  some  30,000  men ;  25,000  of  them  had  to 
be  devoted  to  the  maintenance  of  tranquillity  in  Ireland. 
Civil  war  seemed  so  imminent  that  it  appalled  even 
the  stout  heart  of  the  Duke  of  Wellington.  The  exist- 
ing situation  was  intolerable.  Yet  there  seemed  to  be 
no  issue  from  this  impasse.  To  suppress  the  agitation 
by  force  of  arms  was  hopeless,  for  neither  troops  nor 
police  could  any  longer  be  trusted.  To  ask  coercive 
powers  of  a  House  of  Commons  which  had  declared  in 
favour  of  Emancipation  was  idle.  To  dissolve  was  to 
provoke  an  insurrection,  and  to  bring  about  another 
Clare  election  in  every  constituency  in  Ireland.  One 
thing  could  be  done,  and  one  only,  and  that  a  thing 
which  none  but  a  Tory  anti-Catholic  government  could 
have  had  weight  enough  to  do.  It  was  to  yield  ;  to 
yield  without  any  conversion  of  English  opinion,  to 
force  the  stubborn  bigotry  of  the  British  to  submit  to 
the  pressure  put  upon  it  by  a  portion  of  the  people  of 
the  United  Kingdom,  their  inferior  in  numbers,  wealth, 
education,  and  strength.  There  was  something  heroic 
in  such  a  self-efiacement. 

Parliament  met  on  February  r)(li  IR'29.  The  speech 
from  theThronesaid  that  **His  Majrstv  in  nmmends  that 
.  .  .  you  should  take  into  your  deliberate  consideration  the 
whole  condition  of  Ireland ;  and  that  you  should  review 
the  laws  which  impose  civil  disabilities  on  His  Majesty's 
Ko man  Catholic  subjects.''  But  the  same  speech  contained 


86  LIFE  OF  DANIEL  O'CONNELL. 

a  request  for  a  grant  of  further  powers  for  maintaining  the 
law,  as  a  preliminary  to  Catholic  Relief,  and  Peel  intro- 
duced a  Bill  for  the  suppression  of  the  Catholic  Associa- 
tion on  February  10th.  The  Whigs,  relying  on  the  near 
prospect  of  a  Relief  Bill,  offered  it  little  opposition. 
They  thought  that  with  the  passing  of  a  Relief  Bill  the 
use  and  occasion  of  the  Suppression  Act  would  disap- 
pear. It  was  carried  in  the  Commons  by  348  to  160, 
and  finally  passed  the  House  of  Lords  on  February  24th, 
and  received  the  royal  assent  on  March  5th.  The  more 
moderate  friends  of  Emancipation  urged  obedience  to 
the  new  Act  without  waiting  for  it  to  be  put  in  force. 
The  Marquis  of  Anglesey  wrote  to  Dublin  urging  its 
leaders  to  dissolve  the  Association  forthwith.  O'Con- 
nell,  indeed,  who  was  now  on  his  way  to  London,  and 
had  less  faith  in  the  intentions  of  the  Tory  Ministry, 
wrote  from  Shrewsbury,  and  wrote  again  on  reaching 
London,  urging  them  to  do  nothing  of  the  kind.  But 
by  far  the  most  influential  of  its  leaders,  after  O^Con- 
nell  himself,  was  Sheil,  and  Sheil  was  in  Dublin,  and 
was  for  moderation.  He  moved  and  carried  a  resolu- 
tion on  February  12th,  that  the  Catholic  Association, 
now  14,000  strong,  should  dissolve.  At  the  same  time 
the  collateral  **  Association  of  Friends  of  Civil  and 
Religious  Freedom "  was  dissolved  also.  Yet  even  at 
this  moment,  when  harmonious  action  was  so  neces- 
sary, and  victory  was  won,  dissension  broke  out.  A 
few  weeks  afterwards  O'Connell  was  in  conflict  with 
MacDonnell,  the  London  agent,  about  his  exorbitant 
claims  to  remuneration  for  services  in  London,  and  with 
the  secretary,  O'Gorman,  about  his  claim  to  appropriate, 
as  his  private  property,  the  minute  books  and  records 
of  the  Association. 

Peel  introduced  the  Relief  Bill  on   the  5th  March. 


EMANCIPATION.  87 

The  King  had  given  to  it  a  rekictant  assent.  At  the 
last  hour,  the  intrigues  of  Eldon  and  the  Duke  of  Cum* 
berland  had  so  far  influenced  his  weak  and  disin- 
genuous mind,  that  he  withdrew  his  assent  to  his 
ministers'  policy,  on  the  pretence  that  he  had  not  ex- 
pected, and  could  not  sanction,  any  modification  of  the 
Oath  of  Supremacy.  He  parted  from  his  ministers  with 
kisses  and  courtesy,  and  for  a  few  hours  their  resigna- 
tions were  in  his  hands.  But  with  night  his  discretion 
waxed  as  his  courage  waned ;  his  ministers  were  re- 
called, and  their  measure  proceeded.  Tn  its  main  pro- 
visions it  was  thorough  and  far-reaching.  It  admitted 
the  Roman  Catholic  to  Parliament,  and  to  all  lay  offices 
under  the  Crown,  except  those  of  Regent,  Lord  Chan- 
cellor, whether  of  England  or  of  Ireland,  and  Lord 
Lieutenant.  It  repealed  the  oath  of  abjuration,  it 
modified  the  oath  of  supremacy.  It  was  attended,  as  all 
Catholic  Relief  Bills  had  been  attended,  by  a  ** securi- 
ties *'  Bill.  It  approximated  the  Irish  to  the  English 
county  franchise  by  abolishing  the  forty-shilling  free- 
holder, and  raising  the  voter's  qualification  to  £10.  All 
monasteries  and  institutions  of  Jesuits  were  suppressed ; 
and  Roman  Catholic  bishops  were  forbidden  to  assume 
titles  of  sees  already  held  by  Bishops  of  the  Church  of 
Ireland.  Municipal  and  other  officials  were  forbidden 
to  wear  the  insignia  of  their  office  at  Roman  Catholic 
ceremonies.  Lastly,  the  new  Oath  of  Supremacy  was 
available  only  for  persons  thereafter  to  be  elected  to 
Parliament.  Introduced  by  Peel,  almost  the  only  per- 
son of  first-rate  capacity  in  the  party  which  had 
uniformly  opposed  all  previous  measures  of  Emancipa- 
tion, the  liill  met  with  but  little  opposition  of  a  formid- 
able character.  After  some  violent  debate  it  passed 
the  House  of  Commons  by  853  votes  to  180,  the  House 


88  LIFE  OF  DANIEL  0' CONN  ELL, 

of  Lords  by  217  to  112,  aud  finally  on  April  13th 
received  the  Royal  assent.  After  sixty-nine  years  of 
agitation,  Catholic  disabilities  were  removed,  and  the 
victory  was  won. 

The  true  significance  of  the  Relief  lay  in  the  disfran- 
chisement of  the  forty-shilling  freeholder,  a  unique  and 
sweeping  measure  of  electoral  restriction.  It  was  a 
counter-revolution  to  that  of  which  the  Clare  election 
had  been  the  visible  sign.  Although  to  the  last  moment 
of  the  struggle  the  "No  Popery"  feeling  in  England 
was  very  strong,  although  the  House  of  Commons 
had  been  elected  on  a  **  No  Popery "  cry,  and  was 
importuned  with  numberless  petitions  against  Eman- 
cipation, there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  Opposition 
to  it  among  thinking  men  was  in  the  main  poli- 
tical. The  Irish  members  were  the  choice  of  the  land- 
lord interest,  for  in  Ireland,  as  in  Great  Britain,  the  re- 
presentation rested  on  a  territorial  basis.  The  Tories 
saw  that  to  emancipate  the  Catholics  was  to  alter  this 
state  of  things  in  Ireland ;  it  was  to  pass  an  indirect 
Reform  Bill  by  anticipation.  The  question  in  Ireland 
was  complicated  by  the  state  of  the  franchise,  which 
was  in  an  artificial  and  unnatural  condition.  It  was 
vastly  more  democratic  in  law  than  that  of  England, 
for  the  electoral  qualification  was  absurdly  low;  it  was 
in  practice  much  more  aristocratic.  In  truth,  the  state 
of  the  Irish  franchise  was  very  analogous  to  the  repre- 
sentation of  the  Slave  States  in  the  United  States 
Congress  in  1860.  For  the  purpose  of  enhancing  his 
master's  political  power,  the  peasant  counted  as  a 
freeman ;  for  the  purpose  of  exercising  power  of  his  own 
he  was  to  be  only  a  slave. 

The  Irish  landlords  of  the  beginning  of  this  century 
were  a  class,  which   the  modern  imagination  can  com- 


EMANCIPATION.  89 

prehend  only  as  figures  in  farces  or  caricatures  in  fic- 
tion. They  were  violent  and  dissolute,  spendthrift  and 
irresponsible.  To  vie  with  one  another  in  tasteless 
splendour  and  grotesque  profusion,  they  burdened  their 
estates  with  mortgages  and  their  tenantry  with  high  rents. 
They  lived  in  a  labyrinth  of  charges  and  encumbrances, 
and  protected  themselves  by  doing  violence  to  the  offi- 
cials of  the  law,  who  sought  to  bring  them  within  reach 
of  its  process.  With  them  to  be  sober  was  to  be  a  nin- 
compoop, to  observe  common  prudence  to  be  a  niggard. 
The  duel  was  a  sacred  institution  ;  smuggling  a  reput- 
able calling ;  the  abduction  of  heiresses  a  common 
mode  of  repairing  broken  fortunes ;  and  the  impartial 
administration  of  the  duties  of  a  county  magistrate,  an 
incomprehensible  pedantry  when  it  affected  others,  an 
unpardonable  insult  when  it  affected  oneself.  Much  as 
the  Roman  Catholics  had  suffered  from  the  system  of 
the  Penal  Code,  its  worst  victims  were  the  landlords 
themselves.  The  constitution  as  it  stood  made  them  the 
guardians  of  the  country,  the  administrators  of  its  daily 
concerns  and  the  possessors  of  its  political  power. 
Against  their  incapacity  or  their  prejudices,  a  Govern- 
ment, however  well-meaning,  struggled  in  vain. 
Brought  up  ns  despots  and  surrounded  by  an  ignorant 
and  degraded  population,  recruited  from  the  ranks  of 
Roman  Catholic  renegades,  and  corrupted  by  innumer- 
able exchanges  with  the  Government  of  votes  and  seats 
in  return  for  pensions  or  plaoes,  they  had  become  in 
three  or  four  generations  unfit  for  power.  Yet  there 
was  an  affection  and  sympathy  between  them  and  their 
subjects,  which  mitigated  the  worst  evils  of  the  situa- 
tion. The  Irish  peasantry,  perhaps  more  tiian  any 
other  agricultural  population,  looked  up  to  their  natural 
leaders,  the  possessors  of  the  soil.     The  landlords  were 


90  LIFE  OF  DANIEL  0' CON  NELL. 

Irish  like  themselves,  Irish  to  the  core.  Their  reckless 
gallantry,  their  careless  profusion,  their  wit  and  their 
weakness,  endeared  them  to  peasants  whose  nature  was 
the  same,  and  whose  habits  in  their  sphere  were  not  dis- 
similar. It  was  0*Connell  who  destroyed  this  alle- 
giance. He  made  the  priest  and  not  the  landlord  the 
leader  of  the  people.  This  Peel  saw.  He  knew  that 
the  forty-shilling  freeholders  were  a  class  too  igno- 
rant, too  excitable,  too  little  accustomed  to  political 
deliberation  and  action,  to  be  anything  but  a  dangerous 
force  as  soon  as  they  got  out  of  passive  control.  By  his 
very  success  the  forty- shilling  freeholder  was  doomed  to 
extinction.  The  Act  which  completed  his  victory  an- 
nihilated him.  It  was  the  first  good  deed  he  had  ever 
done,  the  first  free  political  step  he  had  ever  taken, 
and  it  was  his  last.  Like  Samson,  he  was  greater  in 
his  death  than  in  his  life. 

But  although  the  main  provisions  of  the  Act  were  excel- 
lent,  it  was  attended  by  two  of  those  miserable  restrictions 
which,  to  the  sensitive  Irish  people,  often  seem  to  out- 
weigh a  solid  boon.  The  provision  thatKoman  Catholic 
prelates  were  not  to  seize  upon  titles  already  appropriated 
to  Protestant  bishops,  would  seem  a  trumpery  punctilio 
without  a  parallel,  were  it  not  for  Lord  John  KusselPa 
Ecclesiastical  Titles  Act.  It  was  inserted  as  a  sop  to 
the  English  bishops.  The  exclusion  of  O'Connell  from 
Parliament,  unless  he  either  took  the  oath  of  abjura- 
tion or  underwent  a  second  election,  was  a  mere  fatuity. 
It  was  done  against  the  will  of  the  Cabinet  to  gratify  the- 
spite  of  the  King. 

It  must  be  remembered  that,  so  far  as  Emancipation 
was  due  to  Irish  effort,  it  was  due  to  O'Connell.  The 
Irish  had  had  great  political  combinations  before^ 
though  hardly  peaceable  ones;  they  had  had  the  Volun- 


EMANCIPATION,  91 

teers  and  the  United  Irishmen.  But  the  one  was  a 
military  body  officered  by  the  aristocracy  and  gentry ; 
the  other  was  a  traitorous  conspiracy.  O'Conneil  had 
had  few  persons  of  weight,  either  intellectual  or  social, 
to  aid  him  in  his  task,  and  he  had  been  faced  by  the 
most  powerful  opposition.  Except  Sheil,  he  had  hardly 
counted  a  supporter  of  real  strength.  And  yet  he,  all 
but  single-handed,  had  combined  the  Irish  into  an  agi- 
tation, which  though  potent  was  peaceable,  and  in  crea- 
ting a  revolution  he  had  kept  within  the  Constitution. 
Single-handed  he  had  vanquished  the  Duke  of  Welling- 
ton and  all  the  forces  of  Evangelicalism  at  his  back.  Yet 
this  was  the  man  who  was  selected  for  a  flout  of  the 
most  ungenerous  kind.  At  the  time  of  the  Clare  elec- 
tion he  had  hazarded  the  opinion,  and  Charles  Butler 
had  taken  the  same  view,  that  it  was  possible  to  sit  and 
vote  in  Parliament  without  ever  taking  the  oaths.  At 
any  rate,  it  was  possible  to  elect  him,  and  the  question 
of  his  taking  his  seat  might  be  indefinitely  postponed. 
He  had  at  once  begun  to  exercise  his  privileges  as  a 
member  of  Parliament  by  franking  letters,  and  the  Post 
Office  admitted  his  right  to  frank.  The  moment  the 
Sheriff  signed  the  return,  a  friend  asked  him  to  frank 
a  letter,  which  was  sent  to  London.  It  was  delivered 
to  the  correspondent  while  he  was  arguing  a  case  in 
the  House  of  Lords,  and  was  almost  the  first  an« 
nouncoment  of  the  news  of  the  election.  The  frank 
was  handed  round  and  excited  curiosity,  alarm,  and 
rage.  But  for  eight  months  0*ConneIl  made  no  attempt 
to  take  his  seat.  To  obviate  the  necessity  of  a  second 
election  in  Clare  in  case  the  House  should  deny  his 
claim  to  take  the  new  oath,  he  offered  Sir  Edward 
Denny  .4'3,000  for  one  of  his  pocket  boroughs,  but  the 
offer  was  refused.      The  SherifF  of  Clare  had  made  a 


92  LIFE  OF  DANIEL  O'CONNELL, 

special  return  to  the  writ.  A  petition  had  heen  pre- 
sented against  O'Connell's  return,  and  a  committee  of 
the  House,  appointed  under  Grenville's  Act,  unanimously 
reported  him  duly  elected.  He  arrived  in  London  on 
February  9th  1829,  and  put  up  at  Batt's  Hotel.  Ellice, 
Burdett,  and  Hume  called  upon  him  to  urge  the  imme- 
diate dissolution  of  the  Association.  The  Whigs  pro- 
posed to  amend  the  Relief  Bill  so  as  to  admit  him  as  soon 
as  it  had  become  law,  but  he  knew  the  advantage  it  would 
give  him  to  be  treated  unhandsomely  by  the  Government, 
and  begged  them  not  to  imperil  Catholic  Relief  for 
the  sake  of  a  personal  matter  affecting  only  himself. 
Rumours  of  a  coming  disfranchisement  had  been  rife 
for  months,  and  on  December  16th,  1828,  the  Catholic 
Association  had  resolved  that  "  they  would  deem  any 
attempt  to  deprive  the  forty-shilling  freeholders  of  their 
franchise  a  direct  violation  of  the  Constitution."  In 
speaking  to  this  resolution,  O'Connell  said  : — 

If  any  man  dare  to  bring  in  a  Bill  for  disfranchisement  of  the  forty- 
shilling  freeholders,  the  people  ought  to  rebel,  if  they  cannot  other- 
wise succeed  ;  [and  having  expressed  his  contrition  for  giving  his 
consent  to  the  "Wings"  in  1825,  he  proceeded],  "sooner  than  give 
up  the  forty- shilling  freeholders,  I  would  rather  go  back  to  the 
Penal  Code.  ...  I  am  loyal  to  the  Throne,  and  my  disposition  and 
my  interest  combine  to  produce  in  my  mind  an  attachment  to  the 
ruling  powers  ;  but  if  an  attempt  were  made  to  take  from  the  forty- 
shilling  freeholders  the  privileges  vested  in  them  by  the  Constitution, 
I  would  conceive  it  just  to  resist  that  attempt  with  force,  and  in  such 
resistance  I  would  be  ready  to  perish  in  the  field  or  on  the 
scaffold. 

Now,  however,  possibly  lest  it  might  endanger  the 
passing  of  the  Relief  Act,  possibly  because  it  seemed 
hopeless,  he  made  no  attempt  to  avert  the  disfranchise- 
ment of  the  forty-shilling  freeholders.  He  comported 
himself  with  moderation,   and  showed  himself  a  well- 


EMANCIPATION,  93 

bred  man  of  the  world.  He  dined  with  Ponsonby  to 
meet  Stanley  and  Greville.  Like  a  loyal  subject,  he 
waited  upon  his  Sovereign  at  the  Lev6e.  The  King's 
eye  fell  upon  him.  **  L'here  ^s  O'Connell/^  His  Ma- 
jesty was  pleased  to  say,  **  God  damn  the  scoundrel.'* 

At  length,  on  the  15th  of  May,  about  three  in  the 
afternoon,  O'Connell  presented  himself  to  take  his  seat. 
Multitudes  stood  in  the  streets  about  the  House  and 
within  it  the  gallery  was  crowded.  He  was  introduced 
by  Lord  Duncaunon,  M.P.  for  Kilkenny,  and  by  Lord 
Ebrington,  M.P.  for  Tavistock.  His  demeanour  was  quiet 
and  courteous,  and  he  advanced  to  the  table  with  the 
customary  bows.  There  was  a  dead  silence.  The  oaths 
which  had  been  long  in  use  were  those  of  allegiance,  of 
supremacy,  and  of  abjuration.  The  first  two  he  was 
willing  to  take,  but  not  the  last.  They  were  printed  on 
cards,  and  Ley,  the  Clerk  of  the  House,  tendered  them 
to  him.  He  was  seen  to  raise  some  objection,  and  Ley 
went  to  refer  to  the  Speaker.  The  Speaker  decided  that 
the  old  oaths,  which  Ley  had  tendered,  were  those 
which  must  be  taken.  O'Connell  was  directed  to  with- 
draw. Brougham  moved  that  he  be  heard  at  the  Bar 
forthwith,  but  Peel  desired  delay,  and  an  adjournment 
was  agreed  to  till  the  18th.  O'Connell  was  then  heard 
in  support  of  his  claim  to  take  the  oaths  as  modified  by 
the  new  Belief  Act.  It  was  a  striking  occasion,  and 
the  keenest  attention  was  paid  by  the  House  to  one 
whom  some  of  them  had  been  taught  to  regard  as  a  kind 
of  grotesque  barbarian,  and  others  were  accustomed  to 
speak  of  as  an  adventurer  and  a  traitor.  His  speech 
was  calm  and  temperate  ;  his  manner  that  of  a  polished 
gentleman  ;  his  argument,  if  not  convincing,  won  the 
encomiums  of  some  of  the  ablest  lawyers  in  the  House, 
Tindal  and  Brougham,  Scarlett  and  Sugden.     He  had 


94  LIFE  OF  DANIEL  O'CONNELL, 

twice  set  out  his  view  in  letters  to  the  House,  pub- 
lished on  February  2nd  and  May  9th,  in  which  he 
urged  that  the  proper  course  was  to  allow  him  to  take 
the  oaths  as  he  desired,  and  leave  his  right  to  do  so  to 
be  tried  at  law,  in  an  action  against  him  by  an  informer 
for  the  penalties  for  sitting  and  voting  without  taking 
the  oaths.  He  claimed  to  be  within  the  letter  of  the 
law  in  taking  the  new  oath,  for  the  Act  of  Union  provided 
that  ''  till  Parliament  shall  otherwise  provide  every 
member  shall  take  the  oaths  required  by  law."  For  the 
period  between  his  election  and  the  passing  of  the  Belief 
Act,  no  penalty  was  provided  in  respect  of  his  non-com- 
pliance with  that  requirement.  Now,  since  the  Belief 
Act  passed,  Parliament  had  "  otherwise  provided  "  ;  a 
new  oath  was  prescribed,  and  this  he  claimed  to  take. 
In  any  case  he  was  within  the  equity  of  the  new  Act. 
Since  it  had  passed,  six  Catholic  peers  had  taken  it 
in  the  House  of  Lords,  and  one,  Lord  Surrey,  the 
Duke  of  Norfolk's  eldest  son,  had  been  elected  to 
the  House  of  Commons,  and  had  taken  the  oath 
under  the  Act.  If  he  was  to  take  the  old  oaths,  as  he 
was  the  first,  so  he  would  be  the  last  Catholic  to  do  so. 
The  House  heard  him  with  attention  and  respect,  and 
he  was  directed  to  withdraw. 

Some  Parliamentary  pedants,  of  whom  Charles  Wynn, 
a  high  authority  on  procedure,  was  one,  seem  to  have 
thought  that  a  mere  technical  difficulty  of  this  kind 
would  prove  an  insuperable  difficulty  to  O'Connell's 
admission.  Others  hoped  that  a  second  election  might 
have  a  different  issue,  and  that  the  £10  electors  might 
reject  the  chosen  of  the  forty-shilling  freeholders. 
By  190  to  116  his  claim  was  refused.  He  was  called  in, 
nnd  the  Speaker  asked  if  he  would  take  the  old  oath. 
He  asked  to  see  it.      "  There  is  one  assertion  in  this 


EMANCIPATION.  95 

oath,"  said  he,  as  he  read  it,  '*  which  I  do  not  know  to 
be  true ;  there  is  another  assertion  in  it  which  I  believe 
not  to  be  true.  I  cannot,  therefore,  take  this  oath.'' 
He  was  dismissed,  and  a  new  writ  was  ordered  to  issue 
for  Clare. 

He  returned  to  Ireland  vowing  vengeance.  He 
issued  an  address  to  the  Clare  electors,  couched  in 
violent  language.  It  was  called  sarcastically  the 
**  Address  of  a  hundred  promises."  Though,  on  Lord 
Anglesey's  advice,  it  was  silent  as  to  Kepeal,  it  pledged 
him  to  Parliamentary  Reform  ;  to  demand  the  re-enfran- 
chisement of  the  forty-shilling  freeholders,  the  repeal 
of  the  Subletting  Act,  and  **  an  equitable  distribu- 
tion of  the  revenues  of  the  Established  Church  between 
the  poor  on  the  one  side  and  the  most  meritorious  of  the 
Protestant  clergy  on  the  other,"  *'  to  cleanse  the  Augean 
stable  of  the  law,"  and  to  urge  **  the  abolition  of  the 
accursed  monopoly  of  the  East  India  Company.'* 

The  Clare  electors  cared  nothing  for  the  East  India 
Company  but  a  great  deal  for  their  champion,  O'Con- 
nell.  When  he  went  down  to  Clare  from  Dublin,  the 
people  received  him  like  a  conqueror.  He  reached  Ar- 
magh late  in  the  evening,  but  the  town  was  immediately 
illuminated.  He  pushed  on  to  Limerick  through  the 
night,  and  was  compelled  by  fatigue  to  go  to  bed  on  bis 
arrival  in  the  morning.  His  enthusiastic  admirers  planted 
a  large  tree  before  his  windows  and  filled  its  branches 
with  musicians  playing  Irish  airs.  A  triumphal  car 
awaited  him  at  Ennis.  He  addressed  numberless  meet- 
ings, and  excited  the  new  electorate  as  he  bad  excited  the 
old.  The  dissolved  Catbolio  Association  was  sum- 
moned under  the  form  of  an  aggregate  meeting  and 
voted  the  sum  of  £6,000,  which  the  Association  had  in 
hand  when  it  dissolved,  towards  the  expenses  of  his  eleo- 


96  LIFE  OF  DANIEL  O'CONNELL. 

tion.     There  was  no  opposition  and  no  contest,  and,  on 
July  30th,  he  was  returned  unopposed. 

As  if  this  slight  to  the  foremost  Catholic  and  fore- 
most Irishman  in  Ireland  were  not  deep  enough,  the 
Government  put  upon  O'Conuell  a  hardship  in  his  pro- 
fession also.  He  had  now  been  at  the  bar  thirty-one 
years  ;  he  had  been  its  greatest  advocate  for  almost  one 
half  of  that  time,  and  because  he  was  a  Catholic  he  still 
wore  a  stuff  gown.  When  Canning  came  in,  his  hopes 
of  more  generous  treatment  rose.  Later  on  he  wrote  to 
Spring-Eice,  protesting  against  the  professional  injustice 
which  the  denial  of  this  merited  promotion  did  him, 
and  he  was  told  that  the  matter  would  be  made  to  turn 
on  professional  considerations  alone.  Now,  in  1829, 
the  Cabinet  considered  who  should  be  made  the  new 
Catholic  King's  Counsel.  There  were  six  in  all, 
Sheil,  Woulfe,  Perrin,  O'Loghlen^  and  two  others,  but 
O'Connell  was  not  among  them.  He  had  been  the 
advocate  and  the  law  officer  of  Queen  Caroline,  and 
the  King  could  neither  forgive  nor  forget  that  in  any 
man.  He  had  compelled  His  Majesty,  in  sanctioning 
Emancipation,  to  do  violence  to  his  piety.  At  the  cost 
of  keeping  open  the  breach  between  Great  Britain  and 
Ireland,  the  royal  resentment  was  gratified. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  Session  of  1830  O'Connell 
came  to  London  and  took  his  seat.  He  was  fifty-five 
years  of  age,  an  age  at  which  few  men  can  adapt  them- 
selves to  unfamiliar  circumstances  or  learn  new  and  dif- 
ficult lessons.  He  had  been  rarely  in  England,  and 
was  unfamiliar  with  the  temper  of  English  society. 
He  was  intensely  Irish,  and  the  Irish  were  then  little 
known  in  England  and  less  liked.  A  large  party  hated 
him  bitterly.  He  used  to  say  that  for  the  first  two 
years    the    Speaker    deliberately    avoided    seeing   him 


EMANCIPATION,  97 

when  he  wished  to  rise.  Yet  from  the  first  moment 
he  had  the  ear  of  the  House,  and  the  Doneraile 
discussion  established  his  position  as  a  formidable 
gladiator  of  debate.  He  was  abused  and  he  was  hooted, 
but  he  was  never  despised,  and  he  soon  made  himself 
feared  and  admired.  Of  all  the  feats  of  his  life,  there 
is  none  more  remarkable  than  the  ease  with  which,  on 
the  verge  of  old  age,  he  imposed  himself  upon  the 
attention  of  an  audience  so  difficult  to  understand  or  to 
please  as  the  House  of  Commons.  In  this  session  he 
spoke  frequently,  but  without  extravagance.  His  first 
speech  was  made  on  the  motion  of  Knatchbull  to  amend 
the  Government's  Address  to  the  Crown,  by  calling  His 
Majesty's  attention  to  the  state  of  the  landed  interest. 
On  May  28th,  he  moved  for  leave  to  bring  in  a  Bill 
for  triennial  Parliaments,  a  practically  universal  suf- 
frage, and  vote  by  ballot.  It  was  refused  by  819  to 
13.  The  King  died  in  June  and  Parliament  was  dis- 
solved. 

The  new  elections  told  heavily  against  the  Govern- 
ment. The  counties  in  England  went  against  them 
by  3  to  1,  the  great  towns  by  9  to  1.  O'Connell 
was  elected  for  Wnterford.  The  Irish  elections  turned 
chiefly  upon  the  questions  of  Tithe  and  of  the  Irish 
Church,  Repeal  not  being  made  a  test,  and  the  ma- 
jority against  ministers  was  heavy.  Emboldened  by 
the  revolutions  of  July  on  the  Continent,  during  wbicb, 
upon  the  election  of  a  King  of  the  Belgians,  some  dry 
Belgian  wags  nominated  and  voted  for  him,  O'Connell 
raised  the  flag  of  Repeal  and  the  cry  spread  fast.  He 
had  founded  a  society  called  **  The  Friends  of  Ireland  of 
all  Religious  Persuasions."  Its  objects  were  twenty* five 
in  number,  but  the  principal  was  Repeal.  **  The 
society  "  was  to  *'  consider  with   the  deepest  solicitude 

7 


98  LIFE  OF  DANIEL  0' GO N NELL. 

the  means  of  procuring  such  a  universal  combination 
of  Irishmen  as  may  render  the  Repeal  of  the  Union 
irresistible,  and  thus  give  to  Ireland  the  blessing  of  a 
free  and  domestic  legislature,  connected  with  Britain  by 
the  golden  link  of  the  Crown,  but  independent  of  all 
ministerial  or  undue  control." 

Unlike  the  Act  of  1825,  the  Act  for  the  suppression 
of  the  Catholic  Association  attempted  no  nice  legal 
distinctions  between  lawful  and  unlawful  associations, 
but  empowered  the  Lord  Lieutenant  to  suppress  them  all 
at  his  discretion.  On  April  24th,  the  Duke  of  Northum- 
berland had  proclaimed  the  *' Friends  of  Ireland."  O'Con- 
nell  presently  summoned  a  new  society,  or  rather  the  old 
one  under  a  new  name,  to  be  called  the  Anti-Union  Asso- 
ciation. At  a  ball  at  the  Viceregal  Lodge  in  October, 
Hardinge,  the  Chief  Secretary,  accidentally  saw  its  ad- 
vertisement in  a  newspaper.  The  Lord  Lieutenant  was 
absent,  but  Hardinge,  like  a  bold  soldier,  though  run- 
ning to  the  very  verge  of  legality,  proclaimed  it  him- 
self. The  guests  as  they  drove  home  from  the  ball  in 
the  morning,  found  his  proclamation  wet  upon  the  walls. 
Next  day  O'Connell  founded  an  "  Association  of  Irish 
Volunteers,"  which  shared  the  same  fate.  He  denounced 
Hardinge,  and  received  a  challenge,  which  he  declined. 
This  was  the  first  the  English  heard  of  his  scruple 
about  duelling.  They  failed  to  understand  it.  When 
he  went  to  London  next  month  for  the  opening  of  Par- 
liament, men  turned  their  backs  upon  him  at  Brooks', 
and  no  one  would  speak  to  him  at  his  clubs.  Infu- 
riated, he  took  advantage  of  the  Government  pro- 
posal to  equalise  the  Irish  and  English  stamp  duties 
by  a  letter  advocating  a  run  on  the  banks,  and  the 
panic  in  Ireland  which  ensued  was  wild  though  short 
lived. 


EMANCIPATION.  99 

'  Suddenly  the  scene  changed.  Returning  with  weak- 
ened forces  after  the  General  Election,  the  Wei* 
lington  Administration  fell,  and  Lord  Grey  came  in. 
It  was  the  standing  maxim  of  the  Whig  managers 
to  "  buy  O'Connell  at  any  price,"  and  his  hopes  were 
justly  excited.  He  was  a  man  whose  income  though 
large  had  been  swallowed  up  by  still  larger  expenses ; 
he  was  embarrassed  by  debt ;  attendance  in  Parliament 
meant  the  abandonment  of  his  profession.  His  reputa- 
tion entitled  him  to  hope  for  ofiQce,  or,  at  least,  for  a 
judgeship.  The  votes  of  the  Irish  members  had  been 
enough  to  turn  the  scale  against  Wellington  and  in 
favour  of  Grey.  If  Catholic  Emancipation  was  not  to 
be  an  insulting  mockery.  Catholics  must  no  longer 
be  excluded  from  professional  advancement  and  from 
places  in  the  Administration.  Now  was  the  time  to  see 
if  the  Whigs  were  grateful  to  their  Irish  supporters, 
or  the  English  sincere  in  extending  justice  to  the 
Catholics. 

The  Marquis  of  Anglesey,  whose  previous  Lord  Liea- 
tenancy  had  endeared  him  to  the  Irish,  was  to  replace 
the  Duke  of  Northumberland  in  Ireland.  Having 
known  O'Connell  personally  and  even  acted  with 
him  politically,  he  sent  for  him  in  December,  before 
leaving  London  for  Ireland,  and  an  interview  of  two 
hours  took  place  between  them  at  Uxbridgo  House. 
The  Marquis  announced  that  he  did  not  intend  to 
disturb  the  old  law-officers,  Joy,  the  Attorney-Gene- 
ral, and  Dogherty,  the  Solicitor-General.  O'Connell 
replied  that  if  Emancipation  was  not  to  be  made  a 
practical  thing  in  the  administration  of  Ireland  and 
the  distribution  of  patronage,  he  must  agitate  for 
Repeal.  Then,  said  the  ^larquis,  he  must  coerce  the 
agitation. 

7  * 


100  LIFE  OF  DANIEL  0' CONN  ELL. 

There  was  worse  to  come.  Sir  Anthony  Hart  re- 
tired from  the  Irish  Lord  Chancellorship  and  Plunket 
succeeded  him.  This  left  a  vacancy  in  the  Common 
Pleas,  which  O'Connell  was  eager  to  fill.  Dogherty  was 
appointed.  This  was  peculiarly  galling  to  O'Connell, 
for  in  the  previous  session  he  had  denounced  Dogherty 
for  his  conduct  of  the  Doneraile  case,  and  accused  him 
of  having  kept  hack  depositions  on  the  trial  of  the  first 
batch  of  prisoners,  whose  production  on  the  trial  of  the 
second  and  third  had  shown  such  discrepancy  from  the 
sworn  evidence  as  to  lead  to  an  acquittal.  It  was  in  this 
debate  that  he  branded  the  office  of  Chief  Secretary 
with  the  epithet  *'  the  shave-beggar  "  of  the  Ministry  ; 
but,  on  the  whole,  in  the  controversy,  Dogherty,  by 
his  calm  and  lofty  sarcasm,  had  come  off  very  much 
the  best.  Still,  the  Solicitor-Generalship  might  pro- 
perly have  been  given  to  O'Connell,  and  at  the 
same  time,  by  the  promotion  of  Joy,  the  Attorney- 
Generalship  fell  vacant  also.  Blackburne,  a  Tory, 
was  appointed  to  the  latter ;  Crampton,  a  Whig,  to  the 
former. 

O'Connell  declared  that  there  was  to  be  no  justice 
for  the  Catholics,  and  hastened  to  Ireland.  He  was 
received  in  triumph ;  he  advised  that  Lord  Anglesey's 
arrival  should  be  contemptuously  ignored.  Lord  An- 
glesey determined  to  retaliate.  A  procession  of  trades 
unions  was  to  have  been  held  on  December27th.  Half- 
an-hour  before  the  notice  convening  it  was  to  have  been 
posted  on  every  chapel  door  in  Dublin,  a  proclamation 
against  it  appeared.  The  workmen  asked  O'Connell 
if  they  should  obey,  and  by  way  of  proving  that  he  and 
not  the  Lord  Lieutenant  ruled  Ireland,  he  advised  them 
to  show  a  colourable  deference  to  the  proclamation  by 
holding  the  meeting  on  the  28th.     He  began  the  Kepeal 


EMANCIPATION.  101 

struggle  with  the  new  year.     He  published  a  letter  in 
which  he  said  : — 

Ireland  will  achieve  one  more  bloodless  and  stainless  change.  Since 
I  was  born  she  has  achieved  two  such  glorious  political  revolutions. 
The  first  was  in  1782,  when  she  conquered  legislative  independence ; 
the  second  was  in  1829,  when  she  won  for  her  victory  freedom  of 
conscience.  The  third  and  best  remains  behind,  the  restoration  of  a 
domestic  and  refoi*med  legislature  by  the  repeal  of  the  Union.  This 
we  will  also  achieve,  if  we  persevere  in  a  legal,  constitutional,  and 
peaceable  course.  Let  my  advice  be  followed,  and  I  will  venture  to 
assert  that  the  Union  cannot  last  two  years  longer. 

A  few  days  afterwards  he  founded  a  **  General  Asso- 
ciation for  the  Prevention  of  Unlawful  Meetings."  It 
met  at  the  "Parliamentary  Intelligence  Office,"  a  news- 
paper-room in  Stephen  Street,  which  he  had  established 
the  year  before.  It  was  proclaimed.  He  proposed 
that  he  himself  should  be  constituted  the  Repeal  Asso- 
ciation, beyond  the  reach  of  legal  dissolution,  and  should 
receive  subscriptions  and  be  assisted  by  a  club,  which 
should  hold  public  breakfasts  and  public  debates.  Ac- 
cordingly he  constituted  "  A  Body  of  Persons  in  the 
habit  of  meeting  weekly  at  a  place  called  Home's 
Hotel."  It  was  dispersed.  Then  followed  '*  The  Irish 
Society  for  Legal  and  Legislative  Relief,"  and  it 
perished.  Another  phoenix  rose  from  its  ashes,  an 
*'  Anti-Union  Association."  In  quick  succession  this 
Protean  organization  became  **  An  Association  of  Irish 
Volunteers  for  the  Repeal  of  the  Union,"  a  society  of 
*'  Subscribers  to  the  Parliamentary  Intelligence  OflBce,'* 
and,  finally,  a  mere  breakfast  party  at  Hayes'  Hotel. 
As  fast  as  0*Connell  created  a  new  society.  Lord  An- 
glesey cut  it  down  with  a  new  proclamation.  At  length 
this  farce,  so  humiliating  to  the  more  serious  Irish,  so 
irritating  to  the   Administration,   was   abruptly  closed. 


102  LIFE  OF  DANIEL  0' CON  NELL. 

As  Anglesey  wrote  to  his  wife,  "things  are  now  come 
to  that  pass  that  the  question  is  whether  he  or  I  shall 
govern  Ireland.'* 

On  January  13th,  1831,  a  proclamation  was  issued, 
which  forbade  an  association  under  any  name.  O^Con- 
nell  replied  with  a  manifesto,  threatening  another  run 
on  the  banks.  He  assembled  a  breakfast  party  of  350, 
and  next  day  held  a  meeting  of  his  committee  of 
thirty-one  advisers  in  Dawson  Street.  It  was  dispersed 
by  two  police  magistrates,  and  on  January  19th,  at 
ten  in  the  morning,  he  was  arrested  in  his  own  house. 
An  indictment  of  the  usual  cumbrous  description 
was  preferred  on  the  24th.  In  fourteen  counts  he  was 
charged  with  offences  against  the  Act  of  1829  ;  in 
seventeen  more  with  a  conspiracy  at  Common  Law. 
He  had  made  one  slip  in  holding  his  breakfast  in  de- 
fiance of  the  proclamation ;  he  now  made  another  in  the 
conduct  of  his  case.  He  demurred  to  the  fourteen 
counts.  But  a  demurrer  implied  au  admission  of  the 
facts  charged,  and  an  issue  only  as  to  their  legal  effect. 
He  had  debarred  himself  from  a  trial  on  the  merits. 
He  asked  and  obtained  leave  to  withdraw  his  demurrer, 
and  enter  a  plea  of  "  not  guilty."  The  trial  was  fixed 
for  the  17th  of  February,  and  a  defence  fund  of  £7,000 
was  collected.  But  before  the  trial  came  on,  seeing  that 
it  could  have  but  one  ending,  he  entered  into  a  compro- 
mise with  the  Government.  To  the  amazement  of  the 
public,  the  Attorney-General  entered  a  ?folle  jwosequi 
on  the  conspiracy  counts.  O'Connell  withdrew  his  plea 
of  "  not  guilty,"  and  submitted  to  a  verdict  on  those 
which  alleged  an  offence  against  the  Statute,  and  the 
case  stood  adjourned  for  judgment  to  the  first  day  of 
Easter  term.  He  then  wrote  a  letter  intended  to  be 
shown   to   the    Chief  Secretary,   Stanley,   in    which  he 


EMANCIPATION.  103 

offered  to  abandon  Repeal  if  the  Government  would 
abandon  tbe  prosecution.  Stanley  sternly  refused. 
Undoubtedly  O^Connell  was  humiliated.  He  had  been 
defeated  by  the  English  Government,  which  he  had  so 
often  overcome.  His  matchless  legal  dexterity  for  once 
had  failed  him.  He  denied  in  the  House  of  Commons 
that  he  had  offered  to  withdraw  the  question  of  Repeal, 
and  gave  out  that  he  feared  there  would  have  been  a 
popular  outbreak  at  his  trial.  But  even  his  friends  did 
not  believe  it.  Sheil  said  his  heart  had  sunk  at  the 
prospect  of  a  gaol ;  and  "  how,"  he  asked,  **  could  a 
man  face  a  battle  who  could  not  encounter  Newgate  ?" 
The  supporters  of  the  Government  were  jubilant,  but  they 
had  not  long  much  cause  for  exultation.  It  was  rumoured 
that  O'Connell  was  to  be  treated  gently,  because  the 
Government  was  bidding  for  his  vote  in  London.  Stanley 
denied  the  rumour.  "  The  Crown,'*  he  said,  **  has  pro- 
cured a  verdict  against  Mr.  O'Connell,  and  it  will  un- 
doubtedly call  him  up  to  receive  judgment  upon  it.*'  But 
the  event  showed  that  the  world  knew  better  than  the 
Chief  Secretary.  On  March  2nd  the  Reform  Bill  was  in- 
troduced ;  on  the  9th  0*Connell  spoke  brilliantly  in  its 
support.  The  first  day  of  term  approached,  but  he  could 
not  be  spared  from  Westminster.  The  delivery  of 
judgment  in  his  case  was  postponed  till  May.  But 
judgment  never  was  pronounced  at  all.  On  April  22nd 
Parliament  was  dissolved  ;  the  Act  of  1829  thoreupon 
expired.  The  Govemraent  gladly  availed  themselves  of 
the  plea  that,  the  Act  against  which  he  had  offended 
being  gone,  O'Connell  could  not  now  be  punished  for 
his  offence.     He  was  a  free  man. 

Until  the  close  of  the  Reform  contest,  O'Connell, 
who  had  now  been  returned  for  Kerry,  spoke  and  voted 
with  the  Whigs.     But  in  spite  of  the  most  strenuous 


104  LIFE  OF  DANIEL  O'GONNELL. 

efiforts  in  committee  on  the  Irish  Bill,  he  was  unable 
to  recover  for  the  Irish  peasants  any  of  the  ground  they 
had  lost  in  1829.     He  pointed  out  that  proportionately 
to  the  wealth  of  each  country,  a  £10  franchise  in  Ire- 
land was  as  high  as  a  £20  franchise  would  be  in  England. 
He  complained^that  the  registration  was  cumbrous,  the 
number  of  members  inadequate,  and  that  Ireland,  which 
had  8,000,000  inhabitants,  and  in  1829  had  had  nearly 
300,000  voters,  had  now  only  26,000,  while  the  Eng- 
lish   electorate    was    to    be    raised   from    200,000   to 
350,000.      Stanley  sternly  refused    to  enfranchise    the 
forty- shilling  freeholders,  and  the  House  of  Lords  in- 
serted a  clause  restoring  the  franchise  to  freemen  in  the 
boroughs,  who  were  invariably  Protestants,  and  often 
corrupt.     The   pressure,    however,    upon    the   Govern- 
ment to  do  something  to   conciliate  so   useful  an  ally 
and  so  formidable  an  opponent  grew  stronger.  In  August, 
1831,  Dr.  Doyle,    a   highly   esteemed    and   influential 
Roman  Catholic  bishop,  urged  them  to  confer  office  upon 
him.    In  Michaelmas  term  he  received  his   patent   of 
precedence   as   a  King's  Counsel,  and  hoping  to  fetter 
him  by  imposing  upon  him  official  responsibility,  the 
Government  authorized  Sir  H.  Parnell  to  sound  him, 
through  Dr.  Doyle,  about  taking  office.     If  it  were  cer- 
tain that  he  would  accept  the  offer  if  made,  no  insuper- 
able obstacle   existed    to    their   making   it.     It   was  a 
tempting   opportunity,   but    O'Connell  felt    obliged  to 
refuse.     He  required  a  promise  of  substantial  change 
in    the    Government's    Irish    policy.      This  Grey    and 
Stanley  would  not  give.      Their  view  was  one  which 
Stanley  afterwards    expressed    in  the  phrase  **  Ireland 
must  be  taught  to  fear  before  she  could  be  taught  to 
love,"    and   merely  to    conciliate    a   man    whom    they 
hated,  they  would  not  abandon  the  principle.     But  as 


EMANCIPATION.  1C6 

yet  circumstances  had  not  forced  them  to  avow  or  to 
act  upon  this  view.  Though  O'Connell  could  not  take 
office  with  the  Whigs,  he  conceived  that  he  had  done 
them  good  service,  for  which  he  was  entitled  to  their 
gratitude,  and  when  the  last  unreformed  Parliament  was 
•dissolved  in  December  1832,  he  hoped  that  a  new  day 
was  dawning  for  Ireland.  He  was  doomed  to  a  hitter 
^disappointment. 


106  LIFE  OF  DANIEL  O'CONNELL. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

THE    REFORMED    PARLIAMENT. 

1833-1835. 

Tithe  War — O'Oonnell  renews  his  agitation  against  Tithe  and  for 
Repeal— The  Reform  Bill— "Who  is  the  traitor ?"— Coercion  Bill 
of  1833 — O'Connell's  Repeal  motion — Intrigue  with  Littleton — 
Fall  of  the  Whigs — Peel's  Administration. 

Scarcely  had  the  Irish  obtained  Emancipation,  when 
they  fell  upon  evil  days  again.  From  the  year  1830,  a 
cloud  of  misery  and  crime  gathered  over  Ireland. 
Practically  valueless,  and  economically  injurious,  the 
forty-shilling  freeholders,  who  had  lost  their  votes,  now 
lost  their  holdings,  and  were  freely  evicted.  Prices  were 
low ;  employment  was  ill-paid  and  difficult  to  obtain ;  in 
the  South  wages  were  5s.  a  week,  and  even  less,  and 
even  at  that  rate  work  was  scarce.  In  the  autumn  of 
1830  the  potato  crop  failed  ;  in  the  winter  famine  made 
its  appearance  in  the  South  and  West,  and  unfortunately 
there  was  no  poor  law,  as  there  was  in  England,  to 
relieve  the  distress.  Hundreds  and  thousands  were 
literally  reduced  to  beggary.  The  people  suffered  from 
two  imposts  peculiarly  offensive  to  Irish  Catholic  feel- 
ing. They  were  liable  to  Church  tithes  for  the  support 
of  a  clergy  whose  ministrations  it  was  schism  to  enjoy, 


THE  REFORMED  PARLIAMENT.  107 

and  to  Church  cess  for  the  erection  and  repair  of  build- 
ings, where  heretical  ceremonies  were  performed  which 
they  believed  could  lead  only  to  perdition.  Gross  abuses 
and  gross  hardships  were  but  too  often  connected  with 
these  taxes.  The  burden  of  the  tithes  had  been  thrown 
deliberately  upon  the  Roman  Catholics.  The  tithe  was 
in  many  cases  let  for  a  fixed  sum  to  tithe  farmers,  who 
collected  it  with  little  regard  to  anything  but  their 
own  profit ;  and  being  often  due  in  almost  incredibly 
minute  sums,  it  was,  even  when  collected  from  cot- 
tiers by  the  ministers  of  religion  themselves,  a  tax 
hateful  for  its  past  injustice  and  its  present  hard- 
ship. The  disproportion  between  the  numbers  of 
the  Protestant  parishioners  and  of  the  Protestant 
parishes  was  glaring.  There  were  no  less  than  151  in- 
cumbents of  parishes  who  had  not  a  single  parishioner. 
Between  the  incomes  of  the  bishops  and  those  of  the 
clergy  of  the  Established  Church  the  inequality  was 
no  less  preposterous.  While  there  were  many  poor 
incumbents,  the  number  of  bishoprics  was  indefensibly 
great,  and  their  incomes  exorbitantly  high.  The 
Church  cess  was  levied  by  a  Protestant  vestry  upon  a 
Catholic  peasantry  for  the  repair  of  Protestant  churches  ; 
instances  were  known  in  which  costly  churches  were 
erected  for  non-existent  congregations,  and  others,  in 
which  funds  raised  to  build  churches  had  been  spent 
upon  dwelling-houses  for  Protestants.  The  spirit  of 
the  Irish  had  been  awakened  during  the  struggle  for 
Emancipation,  and  their  hopes  raised  by  its  issae. 
Tliey  now  resolved  in  their  distress  to  submit  to  these 
burdens  no  longer,  and  the  Tithe  War  began. 

The  agitation,  which  O'Connell  carried  on,  quick- 
ened this  spirit.  The  Executive  forbade  it;  but  sup- 
pressed though  it  was  by  authority,  it  did  not  remain 


108  LIFE  OF  DANIEL  O'CONNELL. 

barren  of  results.  Repeal  was  the  object  at  which  he 
ultimately  aimed,  but  he  directed  his  efforts  towards 
ends  far  more  attainable  than  Repeal.  On  the  7th 
January  1830  he  had  published  a  manifesto  to  the 
people  of  Ireland,  in  which  he  set  forth  his  pro- 
gramme. This  included  the  repeal  of  the  Sub-letting 
Act  and  of  the  Vestry  Act,  an  elaborate  plan  for  the 
reform  of  grand  juries,  various  proposals  for  the  reform 
of  legal  procedure,  as  to  which  he  called  himself 
**  a  thorough  Benthamite,"  reform  of  corporations  and 
radical  parliamentary  reform,  and  finally  the  abolition 
of  Tithes  and  of  Church  cess.  On  July  14th  1832 
he  wrote  a  letter  to  the  National  Political  Union,  in 
which  he  formulated  his  plan  for  dealing  with  tithe.  It 
was  to  be  ultimately  extinguished,  but  compensation 
was  to  be  given  to  existing  interests  in  possession;  and 
he  followed  this  proposal  with  another  more  sweeping, 
to  disendow  the  Church  of  Ireland  beyond  such  sums  as 
were  required  for  its  actual  ministry  and  congregations, 
and  to  devote  the  funds  so  liberated  to  charity  and  to 
the  provision  of  parish  houses  and  glebes  for  the 
parochial  Catholic  clergy  and  Presbyterian  ministers. 
A  few  months  later,  as  the  conflict  became  more  bitter, 
he  wrote  again  to  the  same  body  a  long  letter,  which  he 
concluded  by  solemnly  declaring,  "  First,  I  am  deter- 
mined never  again  voluntarily  to  pay  tithes ;  second,  I 
am  determined  never  again  voluntarily  to  pay  vestry 
cess;  third,  I  am  determioed  never  to  buy  one  single 
article  sold  for  tithes  or  vestry  cess." 

The  Irish  profited  by  his  teaching.  The  refusal  to 
pay  tithe  or  cess  was  general.  As  early  as  the  end 
of  1831  the  arrears  of  tithe  were  very  large,  and  the 
clergy  found  themselves  powerless  to  get  them  in.  But 
tithes  were  the  chief  support  of  hundreds  of  the  clergy, 


THE  REFORMED  PARLIAMENT,  109 

and  by  hundreds  they  were  reduced  to  destitution. 
Their  lamentable  condition  attracted,  as  that  of  the 
tithe-payers  did  not,  the  attention  of  Parliament.  Com- 
mittees of  both  Houses  sat  to  examine  the  question. 
O'Connell  indignantly  pointed  out  that  not  a  single 
Catholic  sat  on  either.  "It  seems,"  said  he,  *' Roman 
Catholics  have  nothing  to  do  with  tithe  but  to  pay  it." 
Committees  so  composed  contented  themselves  with  a 
proposal  for  collecting  the  tithes,  not  for  abolishing 
them,  and,  in  spite  of  O^Connell's  opposition,  a  measure 
was  carried,  by  which  the  Government  advanced  £60,000 
fur  the  immediate  relief  of  the  clergy,  and  itself  under- 
took the  collection  of  the  tithe.  But  the  efforts  of  the 
Government  were  as  fruitless  as  those  of  rectors  or 
tithe- farmers.  After  many  struggles  and  some  blood- 
shed, they  collected  £12,000  of  tithes  in  arrear;  the 
effort  cost  £14,000.  When  the  people  refused  to  pay, 
the  Government  proceeded  to  distrain.  The  sheriff, 
assisted  by  a  military  force,  seized  a  cottier's  cow* 
Escorted  by  a  troop  of  horse,  the  cow  was  solemnly 
driven  across  country  to  market.  Its  appearance  was 
the  signal  for  a  universal  cessation  of  business.  As  if 
it  had  been  plague-smitten,  everyone  held  aloof;  not  a 
buyer  could  be  found,  and  nothing  remained  to  be  done 
but  for  the  sheriff  of  the  county  to  drive  the  cow  away 
again,  escorted  by  a  troop  of  His  Majesty's  dragoons. 
The  vindication  of  justice  was  degenerating  into  a  farce. 
Unhappily  it  too  often  terminated  in  a  tragedy. 
Never  had  crime  and  disorder  been  more  rife  than  in 
the  winter  of  1832.  Multitudes  of  secret  societies 
sprang  up,  cattle  were  mutilated,  tithe-proctors  and 
process-servers  were  murdered.  There  were  in  1832 
9,000  crimes  connected  with  political  disturbances,  and 
of  these  200  were  homicides.      The  record  of  certain 


110  LIFE  OF  DANIEL  O'CONNELL. 

counties  was  peculiarly  black.  In]  Kilkenny,  during 
the  twelve  months,  34  houses  were  burnt,  519  bur- 
glaries were  committed,  and  the  murders  and  attempts 
to  murder  were  32.  Queen^s  County  was  even  worse. 
The  burglaries  were  626,  the  homicides  60.  Evidence 
was  not  to  be  obtained,  and  juries  would  not  con- 
vict. It  became  plain  that  a  more  stringent  law  was 
needed. 

The  Government  possessed  an  overwhelming  majo- 
rity in  the  first  reformed  Parliament.  The  necessity  of 
concentrating  every  effort  upon  the  return  of  Eeform 
candidates  had  induced  O'Connell  to  sink  the  question 
of  Kepeal  at  the  General  Election  in  the  summer  of 
1831.  But  Keform  once  carried,  he  insisted  upon  the 
general  imposition  of  a  Kepeal  pledge  at  the  General 
Election  in  the  winter  of  1832,  and  published  a  series 
of  thirty  letters,  instructing  the  constituencies  in  the 
clearest  detail,  what  persons  were  entitled  to  vote,  and 
how  votes  should  be  claimed.  He  had  himself  been 
returned  for  Kerry  without  a  contest,  and  would  have 
preferred  to  sit  for  his  native  county,  but  it  became 
clear  that  no  one  but  he  could  defeat  the  Tories  in 
Dublin,  and  for  Dublin  he  was  constrained  to  stand.  He 
was  elected,  and  his  followers  won  almost  all  along  the 
line.  He  nominated  about  half  the  candidates  who 
were  returned.  Three  of  his  sons  and  two  of  his  sons- 
in-law  formed  his  *'  household  brigade."  Kepealers 
oame  in  for  the  cities  and  boroughs  of  Dublin,  Cork, 
Waterford,  Wexford,  Clonmel,  Ennis,  Tralee,  Kilkenny, 
Athlone,  Eoscommon,  and  Galway ;  and  for  the  coun- 
ties of  Cork,  Dublin,  Limerick,  Waterford,  Mayo,  Tip- 
perary,  Kilkenny,  Kerry,  Wexford,  Westmeath,  King's 
County,  Galway,  Sligo,  Wicklow,  and  Meath.  Of  105 
Irish  members,    but  23   were   Tories;    of  82   Liberal 


THE  REFORMED  PARLIAMENT.  Ill 

members,  45  were  pledged  Repealers.  The  support  of 
52  Irish  members  had  carried  the  Whig  Reform  Bill 
against  a  majority  of  the  members  from  England  and 
Scotland ;  the  Whigs  had  now  a  majority  which  would 
enable  them  to  pass  anything,  and  the  Irish  looked  for 
their  reward. 

The  first  Irish  measure  which  the  Ministry  brought 
forward  was  a  Coercion  Act,  more  severe  than  any  of 
its  predecessors  since  the  Act  of  Union.  The  fiery 
Stanley^s  influence  with  Lord  Grey  had  prevailed  over 
the  conciliatory  advice  of  Melbourne,  Althorp,  and 
Grant.  Seeing  what  was  coming,  O'Connell  began  the 
battle  early,  and  fought  the  Government  policy  with 
courage,  tenacity,  brilliance,  and  vituperation  almost 
unparallelled.  He  initiated  a  four  nights  debate  upon 
the  Address  on  February  5th,  in  a  speech  in  which  he 
denounced  the  Government  as  "  bloody  and  brutal  ''  with 
a  reiteration  that  compelled  the  Speaker  to  expostulate 
with  him,  and,  with  more  damaging  effect,  declared  that 
the  policy  of  the  Executive  had  made  the  Catholic  Relief 
Act  a  dead  letter.  Since  it  passed,  four  years  had  gone 
by.  There  was  still  not  a  Catholic  judge  upon  the 
bench  ;  there  was  but  one  Catholic  high  sheriff  and  a 
handful  of  Catholic  magistrates.  Of  84  stipendiary 
magistrates,  all  nominated  by  Lord  Anglesey  except  8, 
82  sub-inspectors  of  police,  and  5  inspectors-general  of 
police,  for  the  most  part  appointed  since  the  Whigs 
came  in,  not  one  was  a  Catholic,  and  now,  he  said, 
came  a  Royal  Speech  which  was  to  Ireland  a  "  de- 
claration of  civil  war,"  The  GovemmeDt,  however, 
carried  the  Address  by  a  huge  majority. 

On  the  11th  of  February  0*ConnelI  renewed  the 
conflict  by  a  speech  on  the  Report  of  the  Address, 
in  which  he  pronounced  enthusiastically  for  Repeal,  and 


112  LIFE  OF  DANIEL  a  CORNELL, 

on  February  18th,  by  another  on  the  Estimates,  de- 
nouncing coercion,  and  declaring  that  **  this  projected 
measure  of  His  Majesty's  Government  is  more  condu- 
cive to  a  Kepeal  of  the  Union  than  all  my  agitation.** 
On  the  27th,  Althorp  rose  to  move  the  first  reading 
of  the  Bill  for  the  Suppression  of  Disturbances  in  Ire- 
land. To  him  it  was,  indeed,  an  uncongenial  task. 
He  plodded  drearily  through  pages  bristling  with  the 
statistics  of  crime  and  the  records  of  misery  and  discon- 
tent, and  produced  even  on  his  supporters  so  adverse  an 
impression,  that  the  Coercion  Bill  was  all  but  still-born. 
Graham,  who  saw  how  ill  matters  were  going,  despatched 
Le  Marchant  to  Earl  Grey  for  reinforcements,  xilthorp's 
box  of  papers  was  taken  to  Stanley,  and  he  shut  him- 
self up  in  a  room  upstairs.  In  two  hours  he  was  master 
of  the  case;  and  at  midnight  he  rose  to  deliver  almost 
the  only  speech  in  the  annals  of  the  House  of  Com- 
mons that  has  won  votes  as  well  as  changed  opinions. 
He  marshalled  the  facts  of  Irish  crime  with  brilliant 
effect;  he  directed  upon  O'Connell  an  onslaught  so 
fiery  and  overwhelming  that  O'Connell  '^  looked  like  a 
convicted  felon."  He  declared,  without  mincing  matters, 
that  for  her  crimes,  and  their  inevitable  punishment, 
Ireland  had  to  thank  the  agitation  of  O'Oonnell.  He 
charged  him  with  writing,  on  February  lOfch,  to  the 
Society  of  Volunteers,  to  tell  them,  contrary  to  the 
then  usage  of  secrecy  on  such  matters,  that  the  member 
for  Armagh  and  the  two  members  for  Limerick  had 
voted  against  Ireland  on  the  Address,  and  begging  their 
constituents  not  to  forget  it.  This  O^Connell  did  not 
seek  to  deny.  He  quoted  from  reports  of  a  speech  of 
O'Connell's  delivered  at  a  Trades  Union  banquet,  in 
which  he  was  said  to  have  called  the  House  of 
Commons   a   body    of    *'  six     hundred    and    fifty-eight 


THE  BEFOBMED  PABLIAMENT,  113 

scoundrels ";  and  although  O'Connell  followed  with 
a  short  explanation  and  denial  of  the  words,  his 
speech  at  the  conclusion  of  the  debate  made  no  im- 
pression. But  O'Connell  was  not  a  man  to  be  long 
or  easily  put  down.  It  was  his  policy  to  make  him- 
self, in  the  opinion  of  the  whole  House,  what  Cobbett 
had  called  him,  "  the  member  for  Ireland."  His 
imperturbable  assurance,  not  less  than  his  abilities 
and  the  air  of  authority,  with  which  ho  expressed  his 
opinion  on  all  Irish  matters,  gradually  gave  him  an 
influence  on  the  new  members  most  prejudicial  to  the 
Government.  He  spared  no  elBfort  to  improve  his  posi- 
tion, being  always  ready  to  afford  information  to  other 
members,  and  most  bland  and  courteous  in  his  intercourse 
with  them.  In  committee  Stanley  found  him  an  assiduous 
and  formidable  opponent.  But  the  Irish  were  too  few 
in  number ;  only  eighty-four  members  voted  against  the 
second  reading.  The  Bill  passed  by  large  majorities, 
and  the  Government  was  armed  with  powers  to  proclaim 
districts,  to  suppress  associations,  to  confine  people  to 
their  houses  after  dark,  to  search  for  arms,  to  proclaim 
martial  law,  to  suspend  the  Habeas  Corpus  Act,  and 
to  try  prisoners  by  court-martial.  O'Connell's  Irish 
Society  of  Volunteers  did  not  wait  to  be  suppressed ; 
it  transferred  its  powers  to  its  author  and  dissolved. 

The  Whigs,  however,  were  not  insincere  in  their 
desire  to  alleviate  the  sufferings  of  the  Irish.  They 
introduced  a  Church  Temporalities  Bill,  to  abolish 
Church  cess  and  substitute  for  it  a  tax  on  the  incomes 
of  the  clergy,  to  suppress  nearly  half  of  the  bishoprics 
and  a  crowd  of  livings,  and  to  devote  to  non-ecclosias- 
tical  purposes  the  sum  of  £3,000,000  so  liberated. 
O'Connell  approved  the  principle  of  this  appropriation ; 
but  the  Tories,  who  could  not  defend  the  sinecure  bene- 

8 


114  LIFJ^  OF  DANIEL  O'CONNELL. 

fices  and  profusion  of  bishoprics,  opposed  the  appropria- 
tion. To  conciliate  them  it  was  abandoned,  and  the 
Bill  passed  ;  but  thus  reduced  to  the  abolition  of  the  cess 
and  the  internal  reform  of  the  Church,  it  attracted  little 
gratitude  from  the  Eoman  Catholics.  In  the  recess 
ministerial  changes  took  place.  Stanley  went  to  the 
Colonial  Office,  and  was  succeeded  by  Littleton.  Lord 
Anglesey  retired,  and  the  Marquis  of  Wellesley  became 
Lord  Lieutenant.  Efforts  were  made  to  conciliate 
O'Connell.  The  Protestant  party  was  appalled  to  see 
a  Koman  Catholic  agitator  positively  dining  with  the 
Chief  Secretary.  They  were  spared  the  further  pain  of 
seeing  him  in  office.  O'Connell  writes  to  a  friend : 
*^  The  Ministry  have  made  and  are  making  more  direct 
oifers  to  me  .  .  .  but  all  this  does  not  make  me  one 
whit  the  less  immovable.  If  I  went  into  office  I 
should  be  their  servant — that  is,  their  slave ;  by  stay- 
ing out  of  office,  I  am^  to  a  considerable  extent,  their 
master.'* 

For  upwards  of  three  years  he  had  now  been  advo- 
cating and  impressing  upon  the  Irish  by  speeches, 
letters,  and  organization,  the  necessity  of  a  union  of  all 
classes  and  creeds  in  Ireland  in  a  determined  agitation 
for  Repeal.  He  had  broached  the  subject  in  his  first 
Clare  election  address.  He  had  deeply  stirred  the  South 
of  Ireland  by  letters  and  speeches  in  the  autumn  of 
1830,  and  although  his  mind  was  not  made  up  either  as 
to  the  exact  value  of  Eepeal  or  the  precise  form  it  should 
take,  he  was  characteristically  sanguine  of  its  not  dis- 
tant success.  He  wrote  on  December  3rd  1830,  to  his 
constant  correspondent,  Dr.  MacHale,  Roman  Catholic 
Archbishop  of  Tuam  : 

The  moral  and  political  revolution  is  plainly  on  its  march.  ...  I 
am  convinced  as  I  am  of  to-morrow's  smi  that  within  the  space  of 


THE  REFORMED  PARLIAMENT,  115 

probably  less  than  two  years  the  monopolies  of  corporations  and  the 
still  more  gigantic  oppressions  of  the  Established  Church  will  have 
passed  away  for  ever.  .  .  There  must  be  a  law  to  take  off  the 
Church  burden.  An  Irish  Parliament  alone  can  do  that.  There 
must  be  an  end  to  absenteeism.  An  Irish  Parliament  alone  can  do 
that. 


When  he  endeavoured  during  his  prosecution  in  1831 
to  induce  Stanley  to  forego  a  trial  by  the  offer  of  an 
abandonment  of  Eepeal,  he  seems  to  have  thought  that 
an  Irish  Parliament  was  only  machinery,  a  means  to  an 
end,  and  that  if  an  English  Parliament  would  endeavour  to 
remedy  Irish  grievances  equally^effectually,  Repeal  became 
needless.  In  1833,  too,  he  said  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons: ^*  The  only  reason  I  have  for  being  a  Repealer  is 
the  injustice  of  the  present  Government  towards  my 
country.  ...  If  I  thought  the  machinery  of  the  present 
Government  would  work  well,  there  never  lived  a  man 
more  ready  to  facilitate  its  movements  than  I  am.** 
During  the  election  of  1831  he  allowed  the  question  to 
rest,  but  as  soon  as  it  was  over  he  began  his  agitation 
afresh.  In  October  he  founded  his  National  Political 
Union,  which  met  twice  a  week  to  discuss  Repeal,  and  in 
1832  he  endeavoured  to  effect  the  union  of  it  with  a  rival 
body,  the  Trades  Political  Union,  **  to  procure  that  mea- 
sure without  which,  it  is  my  solemn,  conscientious,  and 
unalterable  opinion,  Ireland  cannot  prosper,  the  Repeal  of 
the  Union."  He  formulated  a  plan  for  an  independent 
legislature  in  opposition  to  the  subordinate  assembly  of 
Sharman  Crawford's  Federal  scheme.  At  Bath  the 
newspapers  reported  him,  to  the  dismay  of  the  Irish,  to 
have  declared  himself  favourable  to  the  '*  union  "  with 
Great  Britain.  This  he  denied,  and  said  that  he  had 
only  declared  in  favour  of  the  **  connection,"  and  had 
demanded  *'  a  Parliament  to  do  our  private  business,  leav- 

8  ♦ 


116  LIFE  OF  DANIEL  O'GONNELL. 

ing  the  national  business  to  a  national  assembly."  He 
further  elaborated  his  plan,  proposing,  first,  repeal  of  the 
Act  of  Union,  and,  next,  the  creation  of  two  legislatures, 
each  consisting  of  a  House  of  Lords  and  a  House  of 
Commons,  each  legislature  to  meet  in  October,  and  to 
discuss  private  Bills,  and  the  aflPairs  of  commerce,  agri- 
culture, and  manufactures  of  Great  Britain  and  of  Ire- 
land respectively,  while  in  February  a  National  Parlia- 
ment was  to  meet  for  affairs  of  peace  or  war  and  foreign 
policy.  By  the  following  spring  the  Coercion  Bill  had 
further  developed  his  views.  He  was  anxious  to  have 
Moore  come  forward  for  an  Irish  constituency.  Moore 
would  neither  stand  as  a  Kepealer,  nor  accept  the  position 
of  a  '*  joint  "  in  O'Connell's  tail.  He  told  O'Connell  that 
Separation  must  follow  Repeal,  as  certainly  as  night 
day,  and  therefore  he  could  not  advocate  Repeal. 
O'Connell  said  to  him,  **I  am  now  convinced  that 
Repeal  won't  do,  and  that  it  must  be  Separation."  He 
was  not  far  from  the  position  of  the  peasants,  who, 
during  the  agitation  of  1830,  were  constantly  asking 
O'Neill  Daunt,  "  When  do  you  think.  Sir,  the  Coun- 
sellor will  call  us  out  ?" 

One  thing,  however,  O'Connell  saw  quite  clearly,  that 
it  was  useless,  with  the  Irish  agitation  still  only  in  em- 
bryo, to  ask  the  House  of  Commons  to  entertain  any 
proposal  for  Repeal,  and  yet  in  1834  he  brought  the 
question  forward  in  Parliament.  From  the  Union  until 
1838  the  Irish  members  had  been  Whigs  or  Tories  as 
the  case  might  be,  but  there  had  been  no  separate  Irish 
party.  But  with  the  return  of  a  large  Repeal  contingent  to 
the  first  reformed  parliament,  there  came  into  existence 
under  O^Connell's  leadership  that  third  party  which 
has  held  the  balance  in  so  many  parliaments,  and  upset 
so  many  ministries  since  then.     In   the  brief  interval 


THE  REFORMED  PARLIAMENT.  117 

between  the  last  election  and  the  opening  of  Parliament 
in  1833,  O'Connell  had  not  time,  although  he  held  a 
meeting  of  his  party  in  Dublin,  to  bring  them  into 
thorough  discipline.  But  he  was  disposed  to  make  an 
unsparing  use  of  his  strength  to  keep  his  followers  in 
subjection.  Fergus  O'Connor,  member  for  Cork,  a 
scatter-brained  squireen,  was  unwilling  to  submit. 
During  1833  he  pressed  vehemently  for  the  immediate 
discussion  of  Repeal.  O'Connell  resisted  while  he  could, 
and  twice  at  the  beginning  of  1834  obtained  majorities 
in  the  meetings  of  the  Repeal  party  in  favour  of  its 
postponement.  But  O'Connor  vowed  that  if  their  leader 
would  not  bring  the  question  forward,  he  would  do  so 
himself ;  and  to  avoid  worse  consequences  O'Connell, 
sorely  against  his  will,  decided  to  introduce  the  ques- 
tion. **  I  felt,''  said  he  to  Daunt,  with  a  metaphor  pro- 
bably more  forcible  in  those  days  than  in  these,  **  like 
a  man  who  was  going  to  plunge  into  a  cold  bath ;  but  I 
was  obliged  to  take  the  plunge." 

One  matter  of  discipline  there  was,  in  which  he  could 
interfere.  Hill,  M.P.  for  Hull,  had,  in  a  speech  to 
his  constituents  during  the  previous  autumn,  said  that 
some  of  the  Irish  members,  who  violently  denounced 
the  Coercion  Bill  iu  public,  had  in  private  implored 
Ministers  not  to  drop  it.  If  this  were  so,  OConneH's 
authority  with  his  party  was  gone.  He  must  either 
vindicate  it  by  disproving  the  charge  or  purge  his  forces 
by  unmasking  the  traitor.  On  February  6th  1834,  the 
second  night  of  the  Session,  he  questioned  Lord 
Althorp  in  the  House  as  to  the  statement.  Althorp 
said  no  such  communication  had  been  made  to 
Ministers,  but  he  believed  that  in  private  conversation 
Irish  members  had  approved  the  Bill,  who  in  debate  had 
assailed   it.     Amid  violent  confusion,  O'Connell  rose. 


118  LIFE  OF  DANIEL  O'CONNELL, 

followed  by  the  other  Irish  members,  one  by  one,  each 
asking  "Is  it  I?"  Althorp  said  **no^' to  each.  The 
Speaker  tried  to  pour  oil  on  the  waters,  but  O'Connell 
would  not  have  peace,  and  still  further  troubled  them. 
At  last  Sheil  rose  to  ask  if  he  was  one  of  those  referred 
to.  Althorp  said  that  he  was  one.  Sheil,  ^*  speaking 
in  the  presence  of  God,"  passionately  denied  it.  O'Con- 
nell thereupon  ostentatiously  withdrew  and  apologised 
for  every  harsh  expression  he  had  applied  to  Hill. 
There  followed  a  long  discussion  upon  the  nice  point 
of  honour,  which  of  the  two,  Althorp  or  Sheil,  was  to 
be  considered  the  aggrieved  party,  who  could  send  a 
challenge,  and  which  of  the  two  should  accordingly  be 
first  required  to  promise  to  send  none.  The  Speaker 
called  on  Sheil  to  undertake  that  the  matter  should  go 
no  farther.  Sheil  sate  dumb.  The  Speaker  turned  to 
Althorp.  Althorp  said  he  would  not  follow  it  up  out- 
side. The  Speaker  was  disposed  to  be  content  witb 
this ;  but  O'Connell  was  more  astute,  and  pointed  out 
that  Althorp  had  said  he  would  not  send  a  challenge, 
but  had  not  said  he  would  not  accept  on^.  To  the 
Speaker's  demand  for  a  full  undertaking  Althorp  gave  a 
refusal,  and,  on  Burdett's  motion,  Sheil  and  Althorp 
were  marched  out  of  the  House  in  the  custody  of  the 
Serjeant-at-Arms. 

This  was  a  disagreeable  incident  for  the  Ministry  ; 
another  was  to  come.  On  February  13th,  O'Connell 
rose  to  call  attention  to  the  extraordinary  nocturnal 
habits  of  Baron  Smith  of  the  Irish  Court  of  Exchequer, 
who  loved  to  come  to  Court  at  the  hour  when  most 
Courts  rise,  and  to  try  prisoners  till  the  small  hours  of 
the  morning.  He  had  given  notice  of  a  motion  in 
favour  of  the  judge's  removal.  The  Ministry  had 
decided    to    oppose    it.      Suddenly    he    changed    his 


THE  BEFOEMED  PARLIAMENT,  119 

motion  to  one  only  for  a  select  committee.  Althorp 
and  Littleton^  taken  by  surprise,  assented.  It  was 
carried  by  167  to  74.  But  on  reflection  they  saw 
the  ineptitude  of  the  proceeding.  A  committee  was 
useless.  The  House  must  impeach  the  Baron  or 
address  the  Crown  for  his  removal,  or  let  him  alone. 
The  last  was  the  onlv  feasible  course.  A  week  later, 
on  the  21st,  Knatchbull,  a  Tory  member,  relieved  them 
from  their  difficulty  by  carrying  a  motion  to  rescind 
the  motion  to  which  Althorp  had  assented. 

After  these  two  blows  O'Connell  tried  the  strength  of 
the  Repeal  party.  The  King^s  Speech  had  taken  notice 
of  the  Repeal  agitation.  It  said  of  the  Act  of  Union, 
**  this  bond  of  our  national  strength  and  safety  I  have 
already  declared  ray  fixed  and  unalterable  resolution, 
under  the  blessing  of  Divine  Providence,  to  maintain 
inviolate  by  all  the  means  in  my  power.'^  The  Address 
contained  words  which  re-echoed  this  resolution; 
O'Connell  had  moved  their  omission,  and  was  defeated 
by  189  to  23.  The  prospect  was  dark  indeed.  He 
gave  notice  of  a  motion  for  a  committee  to  inquire  into 
the  working  of  the  Act  of  Union.  **  He  was  one  of  the 
most  sensitive  and  nervous  men  that  ever  lived,**  says 
his  son.  **  Previous  to  his  motion  he  was  very  unhappy 
and  spent  several  sleepless  nights,  whioh  was  by  no 
means  unusual  with  him  when  any  matter  of  importance 
impended.'*  His  motion  came  on  about  5  p.m.  on 
Tuesday,  April  22nd.  He  spoke  for  nearly  seven  hours. 
Beginning  with  a  long  historical  retrospect,  during 
which  he  read  copious  extracts  from  Morrisson's  History 
of  Ireland,  ho  proceeded  to  argue  that  the  Irish  Parlia- 
ment had  no  power  to  extinguish  itself  or  to  sell  its 
birthright,  and  therefore  that  the  Act  of  Union  was  not 
binding  in  law.     It  was  not  binding  in  morality,  having 


120  LIFE  OF  DANIEL  O'CONNELL. 

been  procured  by  corrupt  means.  He  even  declared 
that  for  the  purpose  of  making  up  a  case  for  union  the 
English  Government  had  connived  at  the  plots  of  the 
United  Irishmen  and  deliberately  fostered  the  rebellion 
of  1798.  He  argued  that  the  terms  of  the  bargain  were 
unfair  to  Ireland.  The  English  House  of  Lords  had 
usurped  an  appellate  jurisdiction  so  inconvenient,  that 
this  grievance  of  itself  was  sufficient  to  justify  the 
demand  for  Repeal.  Ireland  had  been  loaded  with  an 
unfair  proportion  of  the  Imperial  indebtedness.  The 
taxation  for  interest  on  the  debt  and  annual  expenditure, 
to  which  her  resources  made  her  justly  liable,  was  l-17th 
of  the  whole.  She  had  been  charged  with  2-17ths  ; 
and,  as  it  was  impossible  for  her  to  pay  so  much,  it  had 
been  found  necessary  to  amalgamate  the  Irish  with  the 
English  exchequer.  Proportionately  to  her  population 
she  ought  to  have  202  members,  and  on  any  calculation 
110;  she  had  105.  Since  the  Union,  Ireland  had  de- 
cayed. From  1782  to  1800  her  consumption  of  tea  and 
tobacco  had  increased  twice  as  fast  as  that  of  England, 
of  coflPee  and  wine  four  times  as  fast.  But  since  1800 
absenteeism  had  become  almost  universal,  and  Ireland 
had  fallen  into  poverty.  In  Great  Britain  ^£47,000,000 
of  taxation  had  been  repealed ;  in  Ireland  £1,500,000. 
Taxes  in  England  had  risen  20  per  cent. ;  in  Ireland  80 
per  cent.  The  population  of  England  had  increased 
prodigiously  in  thirty-four  years;  in  Ireland  it  had 
diminished.  In  that  period  there  had  been  sixty  select 
committees  and  one  hundred  and  fourteen  commissions 
on  Irish  aflPairs,  and  yet  for  all  this  inquiry  the  English 
had  been  so  little  able  to  govern  Ireland  that  in  twenty  of 
the  thirty-four  years  the  Constitution  was  suspended. 
His  case  was  backed  up  with  a  huge  parade  of  quota- 
tions from  various  politicians  by  way  of  testimony,  like 


THE  REFORMED  PARLIAMENT,  121 

proofs  in  a  lawyer's  brief,  and  at  the  end  of  his  speech 
the  exhausted  House  adjourned. 

Spring-Rice  was  deputed  to  answer  him,  and  was  no 
less  prolix  and  even  more  statistical.  The  Government 
met  the  motion  with  a  proposal  for  an  address  to  the 
'Crown,  pledging  the  House  to  maintain  the  Union  and 
to  remove  all  just  causes  of  complaint  in  the  future. 
The  question  was  debated  for  nine  nights,  and  O'Connell 
was  beaten  on  a  division  by  523  to  38.  In  the  minority 
•but  one  English  member  voted ;  in  the  majority  57, 
more  than  half,  of  the  Irish  members  were  counted. 
The  question  of  Repeal  was  at  rest  in  Parliament  for 
•upwards  of  a  generation. 

The  Whigs,  however,  were  not  unmindful  of  their 
ipromises  to  the  Irish.  Littleton  brought  in,  much  to 
the  disgust  of  Stanley,  a  Tithe  Bill,  which  commuted 
the  tithe  for  a  land  tax.  It  was  introduced  on  the 
20th  February,  and  on  the  2nd  May  the  Bill  came 
on  for  second  reading.  But  the  Ministry  was  in  a 
moribund  state.  Althorp  and  Littleton  were  for  mode- 
rate reform,  Grey  and  Stanley  for  ruling  with  a  high 
hand ;  Brougham  was  meddlesome  and  treacherous, 
Graham  vacillating  and  uncertain.  In  May  came  a 
crisis.  Ward  brought  on  his  resolution  in  favour 
•of  the  appropriation  of  surplus  Irish  Church  revenues 
to  secular  objects.  The  feeling  of  a  majority  of  the 
•Cabinet  was  in  its  favour,  and  the  (Jovernment  proposed 
to  meet  it  with  a  pledge  for  an  inquiry  into  the  Irish 
Church.  Upon  this  Stanley  resigned,  and  Graham,  the 
Duke  of  Richmond,  and  the  Earl  of  Ripon  followed 
him.  Thus  weakened,  the  Government  was  anxious  to 
secure  the  support  of  the  Irish  members  for  their  Tithe 
Bill,  which  was  obnoxious  to  the  Tories.  But  the 
•Coercion   Act   of  the  previous  year   had  rendered  the 


122  LIFE  OF  DANIEL  0' CONN  ELL. 

Eepealers  implacable,  and  to  add  to  their  difficulties 
the  Government  were  now  met  by  the  necessity  of 
renewing  some  part  of  it,  if  not  the  whole.  To  the 
curfew  clauses  and  the  power  of  proclaiming  districts, 
O'Connell  was  more  or  less  reconciled,  for  the  state 
of  Ireland  was  still  indisputably  disturbed ;  but  to  the 
suppression  of  meetings  he  was  inexorably  opposed^ 
Littleton  knew  that  that  provision  and  his  Tithe  Bill 
could  not  both  pass.  Hitherto  Lord  Wellesley  had 
written  officially  to  the  Government  pressing  for  a 
renewal  of  the  whole  Act  except  the  court-martial 
clause.  On  June  19th  Brougham  sent  for  Littleton, 
and  proposed  to  him  to  ask  Lord  Wellesley  to  write  to- 
Earl  Grey  advising  that  the  public  meetings  clause 
should  be  dropped.  Littleton  did  so,  pointing  out  how 
essential  to  the  Ministry  it  was  to  have  O'Connell's 
support,  and  that  if  the  Tithe  Bill  passed  the  clauses 
against  mere  agitation  would  not  be  required.  Lord 
Wellesley  wrote  on  June  23rd  to  Lord  Grey  a  private 
letter  in  the  sense  Littleton  desired.  Littleton  also  saw 
Melbourne  and  Althorp.  They  were  both  of  his  opinion  ;. 
the  first  characteristicallysaiditwouldnot  do  to  exasperate 
Grey ;  the  second  said  that  sooner  than  assent  to  the 
clause  he  would  resign.  Convinced  now  that  the  clause 
would  not  be  introduced,  Littleton  proposed  to  Althorp 
to  send  for  O'Connell,  hint  that  this  was  so,  and  beg 
him  not  to  embarrass  the  Government.  O'Connell  was 
at  that  time  beginning  a  new  Irish  agitation  against 
the  Coercion  Bill.  There  was  a  vacancy  at  Wex- 
ford, and  against  the  Whig  candidate  he  had  sent  a 
Eepealer.  Althorp  approved  of  the  project,  but  urged 
reticence  and  caution.  Littleton  accordingly  sent  for 
O'Connell,  who  came  to  the  Irish  Office,  and  was  told 
under  the  seal  of  secrecy  that  the  Coercion  Bill  would 


THE  EEFOBMED  FAELIAMENT,  123 

be  a  short  and  limited  one,  aimed  only  at  agrarian 
crime,  and  that  he  would  do  well  not  to  agitate  for  the 
present.  O^Connell  accordingly  withdrew  his  Repealer 
at  Wexford,  and  declined  to  support  a  local  Repeal 
candidate.  On  June  29th  there  was  a  Cabinet  meeting, 
and  Grey,  though  he  read  Lord  Wellesley's  letter  of  the 
23rd  to  his  colleagues,  carried  his  point  that  the  whole 
Act  should  be  renewed  ;  but,  in  introducing  the  Bill  in 
the  House  of  Lords  on  July  1st,  he  suppressed  the  fact 
that  Wellesley  had  written  to  advise  the  abandonment 
of  the  public  meetings  clause.  Rumours  had  got  aboat^ 
no  doubt  due  to  hints  dropped  by  O'Connell,  that  the 
Government  was  carrying  on  some  negotiations  with 
the  Irish  members.  These  were  referred  to  during  the 
debate,  and  Grey  denied  them.  O'Connell  now  deter- 
mined upon  revenge.  He  thought  that  he  had  been 
deceived  and  trifled  with,  and  he  saw  how  Littleton 
had  laid  himself  open  defenceless  to  attack.  He 
argued  that  the  deceit  practised  upon  him  absolved 
him  from  his  promise  to  hold  the  communication  a 
secret,  and  on  the  3rd  he  rose  and  in  terms  charged 
the  Chief  Secretary  with  **  tricking  **  him  in  order  to 
obtain  the  withdrawal  of  the  Repeal  candidate  at  Wex- 
ford. Littleton  could  not  deny  the  substance  of  the 
conversation,  which  O'Connell  revealed  to  the  asto- 
nished House,  though  he  denied  the  charge  as  regards 
the  Wexford  election.  The  angry  combatants  bandied 
across  the  table  point-blank  contradictious  on  their 
honour  as  gentlemen.  Littleton  was  reduced  to  com- 
phiining  that  O'Connell  had  violated  a  sacred  confidence. 
This  complaint  was  not  ill-founded,  and  many  of 
O'Conneirs  friends  and  colleagues,  including  Hume, 
Warburton,  OTerrall,  0*Dwyer,  and  Orattan,  re- 
proached him  with  breach  of  faith.     But  the  mischief 


124  LIFE  OF  DANIEL  O'COJffNELL. 

was  done.  Littleton  tendered  his  resignation,  which 
was  refused.  Grey  saw  that  it  was  useless  to  ask  the 
House  of  Commons  to  give  power  to  prohibit  meetings, 
when  once  it  knew  that  the  Lord  Lieutenant  himself  did 
not  desire  to  possess  it,  and,  finding  the  dissensions  of 
his  Cabinet  now  public  property,  himself  resigned. 
O'Connell  and  Ireland  had  brought  to  the  ground  the 
great  Keform  Minister  less  than  two  years  after  the 
passing  of  his  great  Keform  Act. 

Melbourne  succeeded  Grey,  and  Littleton  proceeded 
with  his  Tithe  Bill.  Upon  the  motion  to  go  into 
Committee  on  July  20th,  O'Connell  pressed  for  delay 
until  the  Church  Commission,  the  Commission  which 
he  had  called  a  *'  wet  blanket"  on  the  tithe  agitation^  had 
reported.  The  motion  to  go  into  Committee  was  carried 
by  154  to  14.  Next  night,  undeterred,  he  brought  in 
an  amendment  to  abandon  the  arrears  of  tithe  and  to 
bring  the  scheme,  which  Littleton  had  eventually  pro- 
vided for,  into  immediate  operation.  The  relief  to  the 
payers  of  tithe  was  very  great,  and  the  amendment 
passed  by  a  large  majority.  But  no  Bill  would  satisfy 
the  Lords ;  they  threw  it  out  by  189  to  122,  and  de- 
ferred the  settlement  of  the  question  for  several  years. 

The  Melbourne  Ministry  did  not  last  long.  The 
King  dismissed  his  Ministers,  and  Hudson  was  sent 
post-haste  to  Peel  at  Rome.  O'Connell,  who,  upon  the 
rejection  of  the  Tithe  Bill,  had  begun  a  fresh  agitation 
with  a  series  of  letters  to  Lord  Duncannon  from  Darry- 
nane,  savagely  exulting  over  Grey's  fall,  struck  the  first 
note  of  opposition  to  the  new  Government  by  post- 
poning the  question  of  Repeal  and  founding  the  Anti- 
Tory  Association.  Peel  dissolved  Parliament,  and 
O'Connell  exerted  every  nerve  to  defeat  the  Tories  in 
Ireland.     The  Tories  almost  defeated  him.     He  himself 


THE  REFORMED  PARLIAMENT,  125 

barely  saved  his  seat  at  Dublin.  His  majority  of  1,549 
dropped  to  217,  and  his  return  was  immediately  peti- 
tioned against.  However,  his  three  sons  and  a  nephew 
obtained  seats,  and,  although  the  Repeal  party  was  less 
strong  than  in  1882,  Peel,  who  on  the  English  elections 
had  a  substantial  majority,  was  in  a  minority  of  twenty 
upon  the  Irish  elections.  The  Whigs  began  the  Session 
by  carrying  Abercromby,  their  candidate  for  the 
Speakership.  Meetings  were  held  on  March  12th  and 
23rd  at  Lord  Lichfield's  house  in  St.  James's  Square, 
the  result  of  which  was  to  secure  them  the  co-operation 
of  O'Connell  in  turning  out  Peel.  Lord  Morpeth 
moved  an  amendment  to  the  Address  condemning  the 
dissolution,  and  O'Connell  took  the  opportunity  of 
indicating  the  measures  in  favour  of  which  he  was  con- 
tent to  postpone  Repeal,  namely,  the  amendment  of  the 
Irish  Reform  Act,  the  appropriation  of  the  Irish  Church 
surplus,  and  the  reform  of  the  Irish  Corporations.  Peel 
introduced  a  Tithe  Bill  but  little  different  from  that 
which  the  Whigs  had  introduced  the  year  before.  Rus- 
sell moved  an  amendment  in  favour  of  devoting  the 
Irish  Church  surplus  to  education,  and  carried  it,  with 
O'Connell's  assistance,  by  a  majority  of  thirty-three. 
Peel  resigned  on  April  5th,  and  Lord  Melbourne  wah 
called  upon  to  form  an  administration. 


126  LIFE  OF  DANIEL  O'GONNELL. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

WHIG   ALLIANCE. 

1835-1840. 

Disappointed  of  OflBce — Tour  in  Scotland — The  Carlow  Election 
Scandal — Abandonment  of  Repeal — The  Irish  Poor  Law  Bill — 
Accession  of  the  Queen  and  O'Connell's  loss  of  popularity  in 
Ireland — Reprimanded  by  the  Speaker — The  Precursor  Society. 

O'Connell's  fond  hopes  from  his  alliance  with  the 
Whigs  were  doomed  to  disappointment.  He  had 
grounds  for  believing  that  he  was  entitled  to  office  in 
the  Whig  Administration,  and,  Kepeal  being  now  laid 
on  one  side,  office  would  have  been  peculiarly  grateful  to 
him.  Eumours  were  afloat  that  he  was  to  be  Attorney- 
General  for  Ireland,  which  the  new  Lord-Lieutenant,  Lord 
Mulgrave,  afterwards  Lord  Normanby,  encouraged  him 
to  believe.  He  gave  them  credit,  and,  thinking  that  a 
new  era  was  coming  for  Irish  officialism,  was  on  the 
look-out  for  a  large  house  in  Dublin  in  which  to  exer- 
cise a  lavish  official  hospitality.  The  rumours  reached 
the  King,  who  had  little  more  love  for  O'Connell 
than  his  brother  and  predecessor  had  had.  His  Majesty 
so  far  departed  from  constitutional  usage  as  to  write  to 
Lord  Melbourne  that  such  an  appointment  must  not  be 


WHIG  ALLIANCE.  127 

made.  Melbourne  replied  with  spirit  that  it  was  not 
for  the  King  to  dictate  in  the  matter,  but  that  in  fact  he 
did  not  propose  to  include  O'Connell  in  his  Administra- 
tion. The  Whigs,  indeed,  saw  the  dangers  of  the  posi- 
tion. Some  alliance  with  O'Connell  was  indispensable 
to  their  existence  :  too  close  a  partnership  might  be 
fatal  to  it.  Below  the  gangway  he  could,  though  not 
without  hazard,  render  them  important  service  ;  on  the 
Treasury  bench  he  could  only  scare  away  their  sup- 
porters. It  became  necessary  to  communicate  to 
O'Connell  that  nothing  could  be  done  for  him,  and 
Ellice,  the  dexterous  manager  of  the  party,  with  whom 
O'Connell  had  been  intimately  associated  in  found- 
ing the  Keform  Club  the  year  before,  was  chosen  for 
the  purpose.  The  announcement  was  a  blow  to  him, 
perhaps  less  personally  than  patriotically.  For  himself 
office  might  have  been  perilous :  his  tribute  for  1833 
had  amounted  to  £13,900 ;  for  1834  to  not  much  less. 
Office  would  have  risked  this.  As  their  Attorney- 
General  he  would  have  been  the  servant  of  the  Govern- 
ment. Popularity  was  dear  to  him,  and  the  Irish  were 
little  used  to  make  an  idol  of  an  attorney-general.  But 
he  thought  this,  nevertheless,  a  serious  blow  to  Ireland, 
for  his  appointment  would  have  been  a  singular  mark  of 
conciliation,  and  conciliation  was  sorely  needed. 

He  bore  his  rejection  magnanimously,  and  took  his 
seat  below  the  gangway.  During  the  next  five  years 
he  rendered  the  Whigs  a  steady  and  invaluable  support. 
His  action  and  advocacy  in  the  House  of  Commons 
during  this  period  belongs,  indeed,  rather  to  the 
history  of  Lord  Melbourne's  administration  than  to 
his  own  personal  career.  Upon  Irish  questions  he  was 
practically  a  consultative  member  of  the  Cabinet,  and 
Irish  patronage  was  almost  at  his  disposal ;  but  he  was 


128  LIFE  OF  DANIEL  O'GONNELL. 

without    responsibility,    and   was   not   called    upon    to 
originate  a  policy. 

It  was  not,  however,  long  before  he  found  himself 
engaged  in  the  most  active  hostilities.  In  his  exaspe- 
ration with  the  House  of  Lords  he  applied  the  expres- 
sion "  bloated  buffoon  "  to  Lord  Alvanley.  Alvanley 
sent  Dawson  Damer  with  a  challenge,  which  was  refused, 
and  Damer  published  the  correspondence.  It  was  also 
laid  by  Alvanley  before  the  managers  of  Brooks'  on  May  2, 
with  a  requisition  signed  by  twenty-three  members  calling 
for  a  general  meeting  of  the  Club  to  consider  0 'Connellys 
conduct  in  the  matter,  but  the  managers  decided  that 
they  could  not  **  take  cognizance  of  differences  of  a 
private  nature  between  members  of  the  Club."  Morgan 
O'Connell  thereupon  offered  a  vicarious  satisfaction,  and 
after  two  shots  had  been  fired,  Alvanley  was  appeased. 
Disraeli  now  thought  that  he  too  might  burn  some 
powder.  He  had  sought  O'Connell's  recommendation 
at  the  High  Wycombe  election  in  1832,  and  had  now 
attacked  him  fiercely  at  the  Taunton  election  in  1835. 
O'Connell  replied  with  still  greater  ferocity,  in  a  speech 
before  the  Dublin  Franchise  Association,  and  called  him 
^*  a  miscreant,''  "a  liar,"  "a  disgrace  to  his  species," 
and  "heir-at-law  of  the  blasphemous  thief  who  died 
upon  the  cross."  Disraeli  wrote  to  Morgan  O'Connell 
on  May  5th,  and  challenged  him  to  fight  for  his  father, 
but  the  challenge  was  declined. 

The  recess  was  a  period  of  greater  excitement  for 
O'Connell  than  the  Session  had  been.  The  Govern- 
ment was  testifying  its  loyal  intentions  to  Ireland. 
Morpeth  and  Drummond,  as  Chief  Secretary  and 
Under-Secretary,  were  carrying  on  the  administration 
with  an  impartiality  and  diligence  hitherto  unknown. 
A  Tithe  Bill  had  been  introduced,  but  the  House  of 


WHIG  ALLIANCE.  129 

Lords,  resisted  it,  and  the  Bill  was  dropped.  The 
Municipal  Corporation  Bill  shared  the  same  fate. 
O'Connell  announced  himself  as  the  indulgent  patron 
of  the  Ministry.  In  a  manifesto  to  the  Irish  people 
he  said  : — 

I  now  come  before  the  people  of  Ireland  to  avow  myself  the  devoted 
supporter  of  the  administration.  If  I  see  the  Ministry  persevere  for 
one  year  in  their  determination  to  do  justice  to  Ireland  I  shall  give 
them  another  trial.  If  the  Ministry  deceive  us  it  will  demonstrate 
that  Repeal  is  our  only  resource. 

As  their  powerful  ally  he  undertook  a  crusade 
against  the  Tory  majority  in  the  House  of  Lords.  On 
the  rising  of  Parliament  he  went  down  to  the  North. 
He  visited  Manchester,  passed  through  the  streets  in 
procession,  and  spoke  in  Stevenson  Square.  He  went 
to  Newcastle,  and  proceeded  into  Scotland.  Every- 
where he  was  received  with  curiosity,  admiration,  and 
enthusiasm.  He  addressed  crowded  meetings  at  Edin- 
burgh. On  September  21st  he  proceeded  by  Falkirk  to 
Glasgow,  and  spoke  six  times  in  a  single  day.  *'  The 
papers,"  writes  Greville,  **  are  full  of  nothing  but 
O'Conneirs  progress  in  Scotland,  where  he  is  received 
with  unbounded  enthusiasm  by  enormous  crowds.  He 
is  exalted  to  the  bad  eminence  at  which  he  has  arrived 
more  by  the  assaults  of  his  enemies  than  by  the  efiforts 
of  his  friends.  It  is  the  Tories  who  are  ever  insisting 
upon  the  immensity  of  his  power,  and  whose  excess  of 
hatred  and  fear  make  him  of  such  vast  aocount.'' 

My  duty  [ho  told  one  of  his  audioncos]  is  to  propose  to  you  as  a 
toast  **  a  speedy  ofToctual  reform  of  the  House  of  Lords,"*  and  that,  I 
confess,  is  tho  prime  objoot  of  my  mission  through  England  and  the 
country.  It  is  now  tho  leading  object  of  my  political  life.  ...  I 
disclaim  occupying  the  principal  portion  of  my  mind  with  any  other 
topic,  till  I  see  tho  oligarchy  mitigated  and  an  effectual  reform  intro- 
duced into  that  House. 

9 


130  LIFE  OF  DANIEL  0' CONN  ELL. 

He  returned  to  Ireland  by  Belfast,  was  received  with 
a  demonstration  of  trades  in  Dublin,  and  proceeded  to 
recruit  himself  at  Darrynane.  In  his  retreat  he  formu- 
lated a  plan  for  the  reform  of  the  House  of  Lords, 
which  he  published  in  two  letters  to  the  editor  of  the 
Leeds  Times.  His  plan  was,  that  out  of  the  peerage, 
whose  numbers  were  not  to  be  allowed  to  fall  below  500, 
150  were  to  be  elected  by  popular  vote  to  form  a  second 
chamber.  The  plan  was  moderate  and  simple,  but  it  is 
not  easy  to  see  how  a  second  chamber  so  elected  could 
form  a  very  useful  check  upon  the  House  of  Commons. 

In  October  he  became  involved  in  a  scandal  which 
caused  him  no  little  disquietude  and  some  discredit. 
At  the  General  Election  in  the  spring  Bruen  and 
Kavanagh  had  been  returned  for  Carlo w.  The  return 
had  been  petitioned  against,  and  it  became  plain  that 
the  seats  would  be  vacated.  O'Connell,  anxious  to  wrest 
the  seats  from  the  Tories,  looked  round  for  a  candidate 
of  means  to  stand  with  the  other  Bepealer,  Mr.  Vigors,  who 
had  none.  A  Mr.  Alexander  Raphael,  a  London  trades- 
man, who  had  been  Sheriff  of  London,  had  for  some  time 
solicited  O'Connell's  support  in  procuring  his  election 
to  Parliament.  He  professed  the  Roman  Catholic  faith, 
and,  although  there  was  some  doubt  of  his  political  sin- 
cerity, his  principles  appeared  satisfactory  to  O'Connell. 
He  had  contested  Pontefract  and  Evesham,  and  had 
thought  of  coming  forward  for  Westminster.  In  view 
of  a  vacancy  at  Carlow,  Raphael  renewed  his  solicita- 
tions. On  May  27th  the  Committee  declared  the  seats 
vacant,  and  next  day  O'Connell  called  upon  Raphael  and 
proposed  that  he  should  contest  one  of  them.  He  wrote 
on  the  29th,  "  You  will  never  again  meet  with  so  safe  a 
speculation.  I  am  quite  sure  I  shall  never  hear  of 
one."     The  parties  had  an  interview  on  June  1st,  and 


WHIG  ALLIANCE.  181 

O'Connell  gave  a  written   agreement  in  the  following 
terms ; — 

You  having  acceded  to  the  terms  proposed  to  you  for  the  election 
of  the  County  of  Carlo w,  viz.,  you  are  to  pay  before  nomination 
£1,000  and  a  like  sum  after  being  returned,  the  first  to  be  paid 
absolutely  and  entirely  for  being  nominated,  the  second  to  be  paid 
only  in  the  event  of  your  being  returned,  I  hereby  undertake  to 
guarantee  and  save  you  harmless  from  any  and  every  other  expense 
whatever,  whether  of  agents,  carriages,  counsel,  petition  against  the 
return,  or  of  any  other  description,  and  to  make  this  guarantee  in  the 
fullest  sense  of  the  honourable  engagement,  that  you  should  not 
possibly  be  required  to  pay  one  shilling  more  in  any  event  or  upon 
any  contingency  whatever. 

The  bargain  thus  closed,  Kaphael  handed  to  O'Con- 
nell  an  old  address  of  his  to  the  electors  of  Westminster, 
which  was  to  be  altered  to  suit  the  taste  of  the  electors 
of  Carlow,  and  he  was  put  in  nomination  on  the  8th. 
He  never  went  near  Carlow  at  all.  O'Connell  pressed 
to  have  the  i91,000  paid  to  his  credit  with  Wright  & 
Co.,  his  bankers.  Kaphael  would  only  lodge  it  with 
Hamilton,  his  own  solicitor,  from  whom  John  O'Con- 
nell at  length  obtained  it  on  June  10th.  0*Connell 
being  then  in  perhaps  more  than  his  normal  pecuniary 
embarrassments,  paid  it  into  his  own  account  at  his 
bankers,  and  remitted  it  to  Ireland  by  an  acceptance 
drawn  on'^  some  Irish  brewers  at  several  months'  date. 
As,  however,  he  offered  Vigors  cash  if  he  desired  it,  and 
took  no  benefit  to  himself  from  the  discount  in  settling 
the  accounts,  this  course  would  appear  to  have  been 
taken  for  some  not  very  obvious  but  innocent  reason. 
On  the- 13th  O'Connell  wrote  to  Raphael,  **  Our  pros- 
pects of  success  are  quite  conclusive ;  if  only  one 
Liberal  is  to  be  returned,  you  are  to  be  the  man  ";  and 
on  the  17th,  **  I  send  you  Vigors'  letter  to  me,  just 
received  ;  you  see  how  secure  wo  are.     Return  me  this 

9  • 


132  LIFE  OF  DANIEL  0' CONN  ELL. 

letter,  as  it  vouches  ^9800  for  me.  With  that  you  have 
nothing  to  do,  as,  of  course,  I  stand  between  you  and 
everybody."  Kaphael  was  accordingly  elected  with 
Vigors  by  a  majority  of  fifty-six,  and  he  at  once  took 
his  seat.  The  return  was  promptly  petitioned  against, 
and  it  became  evident  that  the  result  would  turn  upon  a 
scrutiny  of  the  register.  It  had  been  agreed  that,  in  the 
event  of  no  petition  being  presented,  Kaphael's  second 
£1,000  should  be  devoted  to  a  fund  for  indemnifying 
his  voters  from  any  loss  or  persecution  by  their  land- 
lords. Now,  however,  it  was  required  to  defend  the 
seat.     0*Connell  wrote  on  July  17th — 

Send  Mr.  Baker  (the  parliamentary  agent)  the  particulars  he  wants 
of  your  qualification.  I  will  stand  between  you  and  him  for  all  the 
expenses.  I  promised  you,  and  repeat  distinctly  my  promise,  that 
upon  payment  of  the  second  £1,000,  to  which  you  are  at  all  events 
engaged,  no  demand  shall  be  made  on  you  for  one  additional  sixpence. 
Do  then  at  once  pay  the  other  £1,000  into  Messrs.  Wright's  to  my 
credit. 

On  the  26th  Hamilton  met  John  O'Oonnell,  and  put 
before  him,  on  EaphaePs  behalf,  the  extraordinary  view 
that  the  second  d91,000  was  not  to  be  paid  until  the 
seat  was  safe.  O'Connell  wrote  hotly  next  day  :  "  Kely 
on  it,  you  are  mistaken  if  you  suppose  that  I  will 
submit  to  any  deviation  from  our  engagement."  Kaphael 
at  first  thought  of  resigning  the  first  sGl^OOO  and  the 
seat,  but  having  consulted  his  friends,  decided  to  yield. 
The  ^61,000  was  paid  to  John  O'Oonnell  on  July  28th, 
who  within  an  hour  allowed  himself  to  become  a 
member  of  the  very  committee  which  was  to  try  the 
question  that  the  d61,000  was  to  be  spent  in  arguing. 
O'Oonnell  wrote  to  Kaphael  asking  if  he  would  care  to  be 
a  baronet,  adding  that  he  did  not  ask  without  a  reason ; 
but  Kaphael  was  not  ambitious  of  the  title.     By  the  4th 


WHIG  ALLIANCE.  188 

of  August  he  found  that  he  would  have  to  fight  the 
petition,  if  at  all,  at  his  own  cost.  Unwilling  to  sacri- 
fice his  j92,000,  he  kept  up  the  contest  for  a  few  days ; 
hut  by  the  17th,  105  of  his  votes  had  been  struck  off, 
and  being  thus  hopelessly  behind,  he  withdrew,  and  the 
seat  was  vacated. 

He  took  his  revenge  by  publishing  a  letter  to  the 
Carlow  electors,  setting  out  the  whole  story.  O'Connell 
replied  on  November  6th  in  a  letter,  in  which  he  de- 
nounced Kaphael  as  "  that  most  incomprehensible  of  all 
imaginable  vagabonds.*'  But  strong  language  did  not 
mend  matters.  He  was  accused  of  trafficking  in  seats, 
AS  he  might  have  trafficked  in  bacon.  He  was  sus- 
pected of  having  pocketed  part  of  the  JG2,000.  This, 
added  to  his  frequent  abuse  of  persons  whom  he  would 
not  fight,  induced  Burdett  in  November  to  call  upon 
the  managers  of  Brooks'  to  expel  him.  On  December 
3rd  O'Connell  wrote  to  them  justifying  his  conduct, 
and  they  affirmed  the  decision  given  to  Lord  Alvanley 
in  May.  Burdett,  Brougham,  Stanley,  and  Graham 
resigned  their  membership.  Next  session  a  petition 
from  Carlow  was  presented  by  Bruen  on  February  11th, 
setting  out  the  facts  of  the  election.  The  matter  looked 
grave.  On  the  16th  a  committee  of  inquiry  was  ap- 
pointed; it  met  on  February  19th  and  29th,  heard 
O'Connell's  explanation,  which  was  corroborated  by 
Vigors,  and  eventually  on  March  11th  reported  that 
although  "  no  charge  of  a  pecuniary  character  can  be 
attached  to  Mr.  O'Connell,"  and  **  he  was  only  the 
medium  between  Raphael  and  Vigors  and  the  political 
club  at  Carlow  ";  still,  the  letter  of  June  Ist  was  **  cal- 
culated to  excite  much  suspicion  and  grave  animadver- 
sion." It  was  a  lenient  conclusion.  The  whole  affair 
shows  not  only  how  indifferent  O'Connell  was  to  the 


134  LIFE  OF  DANIEL  O'CONNELL. 

nicer  particulars  of  public  conduct,  but  how  difficult  a 
task  it  was  to  find  Repeal  candidates  among  Irishmen  of 
moderate  means  and  tolerable  reputation.  Till  1829 
the  Irish  members  had  been  even  more  aristocratic  than 
the  English,  and  in  the  counties  good  birth  and  good 
family  had^  been  indispensable  in  a  candidate.  O'Con- 
nell  had  changed  all  this ;  but  a  supporter,  even 
nominally  respectable,  must  have  been  hard  to  obtain^ 
when  Raphael  could  be  accepted  so  easily.  Men  of  high 
abilities  or  standing  were  little  likely  to  brook  the 
complete  obedience  and  subordination  to  himself  which 
O'Connell  expected  of  the  *' joints  of  his  tail,"  and 
among  those  who  formed  his  party  were  some  who^ 
though  no  doubt  unsuspected  by  him,  were  generally 
and  reasonably  believed  to  sell  to  candidates  for  money 
down  their  promises  of  support  in  the  solicitation  of 
petty  offices  in  the  Civil  Service.  The  followers  of 
O'Connell  were  not,  indeed,  inferior  to  the  Irish  Tory 
members,  but  the  conduct  of  both  classes  amazed  the 
more  reserved  English  members  of  the  House.  John 
O'Connell,  not  a  willing  witness  against  his  country- 
men, says :  "  Not  an  assertion  dropped  by  an  Irish 
member  on  one  side,  but  it  was  immediately  contra- 
dieted  upon  the  other ;  not  a  violent  expression  or  ges- 
ture but  had  its  counterpart  with  interest.  And  while 
the  Irishmen  fought  and  blackened  each  other,  and  rose 
higher  and  higher  towards  boiling  point,  the  English 
members  looked  on,  as  the  Spartans  of  old  at  the 
riotings  of  their  Helots,  and  asked  each  other  with 
looks  of  pitying  contempt:  *Is  it  not  well  for  such  men 
as  these  to  have  us  to  take  care  of  them  ?'  " 

The  administration  of  Ireland,  in  the  hands  of  Mul- 
grave  and  Drummond,  had  now  been  shown  to  be  so 
impartial   and    liberal,    that    O'Connell   felt   bound   to 


WHIG  ALLIANCE.  135 

redeem  his  promise  of  abandoning  the  Kepeal  agita- 
tion. Old  as  he  was,  before  Parliament  met  in  1836  he 
was  incessantly  active.  On  January  14th  he  was 
speaking  at  Tralee,  on  the  16th  at  Cork,  on  the  18th  at 
Galway,  on  the  20th  at  Shadbally,  on  the  25th  at 
Dublin.  He  then  came  to  a  meeting  at  Liverpool,  spoke 
at  Birmingham  on  the  28th,  and  appeared  in  Parlia- 
ment when  it  opened  on  February  4th.  He  asked  of 
his  audiences  their  authority  to  drop  the  question 
of  Kepeal  if  he  thought  England  was  giving  justice 
to  Ireland.  In  Dublin,  at  St.  Bridget's  charity  dinner, 
he  said : — 

When  Emancipation  was  obtained  I  sought  for  Repeal,  because  1 
saw  that  the  Imperial  Parliament  paid  little  attention  to  the  affairs 
and  condition  of  Ireland.  Even  Sir  Robert  Peel  himself  confessed 
that  he  could  not  get  forty  members  together  when  an  Irish  question 
was  to  bo  brought  forward.  I,  however,  took  up  Repeal,  and  like  the 
flappers  we  read  of  in  Gullivers  Travels,  I  rattled  it  about  their  ears, 
the  result  of  which  is  that  the  attention  of  the  Government  is  almost 
entirely  engrossed  with  the  affairs  of  Ireland.  ...  In  looking  for 
Repeal,  both  Houses  of  Parliament  promised  that  if  that  question 
were  given  up,  they  would  grant  every  other,  which  could  be  proved 
to  be  advantageous  to  Ireland.  ...  I  am  now  for  making  the  experi- 
inent,  whether  that  is  a  real  and  bona  Jide  reason  on  their  part,  or  a 
more  pretence.  .  .  .  Place  us  on  an  equality  with  yourselves,  and 
then  talk  to  mo  of  an  Union  ;  for  then  will  I  offer  you,  in  the  name  of 
the  Irish  people,  not  to  talk  of  Repeal ;  but  imless  you  do  that,  thank 
Heaven,  wo  have  seven  millions  of  people  to  fall  back  upon  the  qnes- 
tion  of  Repeal  again.  The  people  of  Ireland  are  ready  to  beoome  a 
portion  of  the  Empire,  provided  they  be  made  so  in  reality,  and  not  in 
name  alone.  They  are  ready  to  become  a  kind  of  West  Britons  if 
made  so  in  benefits  and  in  jnatioe;  but  if  not,  we  are  Irishmen 
again. 

A  petition  against  his  return  for  Dublin  had  been 
presented  in  the  previous  session.  A  committee  had 
been  appointed,  and  liad  delegated  three  barristers  to 
conduct    a   local    inquiry    into     the    facts   in   Dublin* 


136  LIFE  OF  DANIEL  O'CONNELL, 

O'Connell  was  charged  with  gross  intimidation,  with 
advocating  exclusive  dealing,  and  urging  that  every 
adverse  voter  should  find  a  death's  head  and  cross-bones 
chalked  by  his  enemies  upon  his  door.  The  register 
was  elaborately  investigated.  He  spent  iG20,000  in 
defending  the  petition,  and  the  costs  of  the  petitioners 
were  ^640,000,  which  the  Carlton  Club  was  reported  to 
have  largely  taken  upon  itself.  The  commissioners 
sate  some  six  months  in  Dublin,  and  after  the  presenta- 
tion of  their  report  the  committee  conducted  a  further 
inquiry  for  six  weeks.  On  May  16th  O'Connell  was 
unseated,  but  his  measures  had  been  taken.  His  voice 
was  needed  in  the  discussion  upon  the  Municipal 
Reform  Bill.  In  anticipation  of  this  result,  Richard 
Sullivan,  M.P.  for  Kilkenny,  had  accepted  the  Chil- 
tern  Hundreds,  and  on  the  17th  O'Connell  was  elected 
in  his  place.  Meetings  were  held  in  England  to 
raise  a  subscription  in  aid  of  his  expenses;  ;£3,000 
was  subscribed  at  the  first,  and  the  nett  proceeds 
amounted  to  :£8,489.  The  Duke  of  Bedford  sub- 
scribed one  hundred  guineas.  The  King  said  he  might 
subscribe  if  he  chose,  but  no  supporter  of  O'Connell 
could  be  allowed  to  appear  among  the  sculptures  of 
Windsor,  and  ordered  his  bust  to  be  removed  from  the 
royal  gallery. 

The  agitation  for  the  abolition  of  tithe  was  still 
going  on.  Sheil  and  O'Connell  had  both  refused  to 
pay  it,  and  O'Connell  had  all  but  been  outlawed  in  con- 
sequence by  the  Dublin  Court  of  Exchequer.  The 
Ministry  reintroduced  a  Tithe  Bill  on  the  same  lines  as 
that  of  the  previous  year.  The  Municipal  Corporation 
Bill  proposed  to  deal  with  the  Irish  corporations,  some 
fifty  in  number,  in  a  drastic  fashion.  Their  privileges 
and  monopolies  were  numerous.     They  were  now  all  to 


WHIG  ALLIANCE.  137 

•be  swept  away,  and  an  occupation  franchise  of  £10  in 
large  towns  and  £5  in  small  ones,  was  to  be  fixed  as  the 
feasis  of  corporators'  rights.  Peel  opposed  it  in  the 
House  of  Commons  with  a  proposal  for  the  total 
abolition  of  these  corporations.  He  was  defeated,  but 
in  the  House  of  Lords  he  triumphed.  The  Bill  was 
thrown  out  by  203  to  119,  and  the  Tithes  Bill  was  also 
lost.  O'Connell  resolved  to  **  revive  the  Catholic  Asso- 
ciation on  a  broader  basis  "  for  the  purpose  of  obtain- 
ing a  full  corporate  reform  and  tithe  reform.  He  called 
his  new  association  the  General  Association.  It  met 
twice  a  week,  and  speedily  became  formidable  enough  to 
excite  no  little  outcry  in  England.  It  collected  a 
"justice  rent,'^  which  reached  4^690  per  week  by 
November.  Ireland  seemed  again  on  the  verge  of 
fresh  agitation.  In  England  the  rancour  of  his  enemies 
redoubled.  He  had  hitherto  given  a  general  support  to 
factory  legislation,  and  had  spoken  in  favour  of  restrict- 
ing the  hours  of  labour  of  children  employed  in  factories. 
In  May,  two  Bills  came  before  the  House  of  Commons, 
which  dealt  with  the  subject,  Fielden's  providing 
for  a  working  day  of  ten  hours,  and  Poulett  Thom- 
son's, which  regulated  the  conditions  of  factory  work, 
but  did  not  adopt  the  ten  hours  day.  O'Connell 
was  satisfied  from  the  debate,  that,  in  the  then  state  of 
things,  to  impose  a  limitation  on  the  hours  of  work  would 
cause  considerable  loss  of  trade,  and  consequent  suffering 
and  loss  of  employment  to  the  very  class  it  was  proposed 
to  protect.  He  voted  for  Poulett  Thomson's  Bill.  The 
operatives,  who  supported  the  ten  hours*  bill,  were  much 
•disappointed,  and  the  Tories  took  advantage  of  the 
■opportunity  to  attack  him.  Wilson,  in  an  article  on 
^*  Cotton  Manufacturers  and  the  Factory  System,"  in 
the  July  number  of  Blackwood's  Magazine,  alleged  that 


138  LIFE  OF  DANIEL  O'CONNELL. 

three  days  before  the  debate  O'Connell  had  promised 
Lord  Ashley  the  support  of  his  party  for  Fielden's  Bill^ 
and  that  three  days  after  the  debate  he  was  rewarded 
for  his  breach  of  faith  by  the  admiring  manufacturers 
with  a  purse  of  seven  hundred  guineas.  Bell,  for- 
merly editor  of  the  True  Sun,  and  newly  appointed 
editor  of  the  Mercury,  published  in  it  a  statement  that 
Mr.  Potter  of  Manchester  had  promised  O'Connell,  who 
was  then  much  in  debt,  ^91,000  for  his  support  on  the 
question.  This  Potter  promptly  came  forward  to  deny.. 
The  story  probably  originated  in  the  subscription  to 
lighten  the  cost  of  O'Connell's  defence  to  the  petition 
against  his  return  for  Dublin  ;  but  it  shows  with  great 
force  how  bitter  and  unscrupulous  was  the  animosity 
which  he  excited  among  his  opponents. 

For  the  Session  of  1837  the   Government  measures 
were  the  reintroduetion  of  the  Irish  Municipal  Reform 
Bill  and  a  Poor  Law  Bill.     Of  any  application  to  Ire- 
land of  the   English  poor-law    system   O'Connell  had 
long  been   a  steadfast  opponent.      He  had  carried  on  at 
sharp    controversy    upon    the  subject   with   Dr.    Doyle 
in  1832,  in  which  undoubtedly  the  victory  rested  with 
the   Bishop.      He   was   now   less    violently   hostile    to- 
the    principle,    but    still    deeply    impressed    with    the 
difficulty    of   applying   it.      On    February    13th    Lord 
John  Russell  called  the  attention  of  the  House  of  Com- 
mons   to  the  necessity   of   passing  an   Irish   poor-law. 
O'Connell  expressed  himself  incredulous  of  its  success,, 
and  advised  emigration  as   a  remedy,   but  said  that  he 
regarded  the  proposal  as  an  experiment  and  would  not 
resist  it.    Upon  the  second  reading,  at  the  end  of  April, 
he  took  a  decided   stand   and  attacked  it  directly.     He 
pointed  out  that  there  was  to   be  no  provision  for  out- 
door relief,  and  the  cheap  workhouses  which  it  was  pro- 


WHIG  ALLIANCE,  13^ 

posed  to  erect  for  the  accommodation  of  80,000  poor, 
were  wholly  inadequate  to  the  indoor  relief  of  the  two 
millions  who  were  destitute.  Wages,  which  in  England 
were  8s.  to  10s.  per  week,  in  Ireland  were  2s.  6d.,  and 
even  2s.  Ireland,  with  its  smaller  area  and  smaller 
population,  had  hut  75,000  fewer  agricultural  labourer* 
than  England.  There  were  no  means  of  permanently 
supporting  them,  and  it  was  then  computed  that  in 
Ireland  585,000  heads  of  families  were  out  of  work 
for  seven  months  in  every  year.  Hitherto  this  gigan- 
tic evil  had  been  dealt  with  by  the  spontaneous  and 
abundant  charity  of  the  poor.  Given  in  kind  and 
not  in  coin  this  was  felt  by  the  giver  as  but  a  slight 
burden,  but  it  sufiBced  to  support,  though  on  the 
verge  of  misery,  many  thousands  of  mendicants. 
A  poor-law  must  abolish  this.  To  provide  a  legal 
relief,  to  which  every  beggar  was  entitled,  was  to  deprive 
him  of  that  voluntary  relief  from  his  neighbours,  which 
in  default  of  a  poor-law  was  never  refused.  The  use 
and  wont  of  generations  had  made  mendicancy  an 
honourable  calling  and  had  attracted  to  its  wandering 
and  unrestrained  life  vast  crowds  of  beggars.  The 
Government  proposal  implied  as  a  consequence  the  ex- 
tinction of  this  calling  :  it  supplied  in  its  stead  a  relief 
which  one-tenth  of  the  applicants  would  exhaust* 
Work  for  the  remainder  was  not  to  bo  had  :  there  re- 
mained only  the  sad  alternative  of  starvation. 

But  the  question  remained  undecided  for  the  momenU 
In  June  the  King  died.  O'Connell  was  full  of  enthu- 
siastic loyalty  to  the  young  Queen,  and  at  the  General 
Election  gave  her  Ministers  nil  the  support  in  his  power* 
He  put  out  a  manifesto,  in  which  he  said  :  **  Ireland  is 
prepared  to  amalgamate  with  the  entire  Empire.  We 
are  prepared  for  full  and   perpetual  conciliation.      Let 


140  LIFE  OF  DANIEL  O'CONNELL. 

Ireland  and  England  be  identified."  As  soon  as  the 
election  was  over  he  dissolved  the  General  Association, 
saying  that  **  he  was  still  in  favour  of  giving  a  fair  trial 
to  the  Union  ;  he  would  confidently  entrust  the  fortunes 
of  the  Irish  people  to  the  British  Parliament.  If  the 
results  demonstrated  the  incapacity  of  Parliament  and 
Government  to  do  full  and  complete  justice  to  Ireland, 
then  he  would  unfurl  the  flag  of  Repeal  and  call  upon 
Ireland  to  rally  round  it."  Upon  the  general  result 
of  the  elections  the  Ministry  had  a  majority  of  twenty- 
five  ;  without  O'Connell's  assistance  they  would  have 
been  in  a  minority. 

But  in  proportion  as  Lord  Melbourne  had  sought  to 
govern  Ireland  according  to  Irish  ideas,  and  O^Connell 
to  conduct  himself  according  to  the  ideas  of  the  Eng- 
lish, each  had  lost  ground  with  his  own  countrymen. 
It  became  plain  that  the  Whigs  were  kept  in  oflice 
only  by  the  Repeal  vote.  It  was  alleged  that  they  had 
sold  the  Irish  Church  for  the  thirty  pieces  of  silver  of 
O'Connell's  support.  Lord  John  Russell  was  |likened 
to  Judas  Iscariot,  and  the  Whig  Government  was  called 
the  O'Connell  Cabinet.  Exposed  to  the  assaults  of  Peel 
in  front,  and  attacked  in  flank  by  "the  Derby  dilly  carry- 
ing six  insides,"  with  a  hostile  House  of  Lords,  a  King 
of  erratic  will  and  feeble  health,  and  an  heir  to  the  throne 
who  was  a  girl  in  her  teens,  caught  between  the  active 
agitation  of  Exeter  Hall,  which  opposed  all  countenance 
to  Roman  Catholics,  and  the  growing  High  Church  cry 
that  the  appropriation  clause  was  a  robbery  of  the 
Church  of  Christ,  the  Ministry  had  found  themselves 
in  a  position  in  which  nothing  but  the  firmest  and  most 
united  front  could  bring  them  out  of  the  conflict  with 
success  or  even  without  dishonour.  But  their  followers 
were  not  a  united  party.     Some  were  Whigs,  impracti-^ 


WHIG  ALLIANCE.  141 

cable  with  the  pride  of  family,  the  Brahmins  of  politics; 
some  were  Radicals,  impracticable  with  the  pride  of  rea- 
son, political  Pharisees;  while  O'Connell,  in  proportion  as 
he  stood  loyally  by  the  Ministry,  found  the  Irish  for- 
getting his  fame  and  his  services.  Nor  were  the  Ministry 
able  to  effect  much  for  Ireland.  Their  administration^ 
indeed,  was  admirable,  but  year  after  year,  a  Tithe  Bill^ 
such  as  Peel  himself  had  introduced,  was  wrecked  by 
the  House  of  Lords,  and  the  Irish  were  denied  the- 
Corporation  Reform  which  their  own  representatives 
had  been  largely  instrumental  in  passing  for  England. 
In  the  hopes  of  obtaining  *' justice  for  Ireland  "  O'Con- 
nell  had  supported  the  Whigs  at  the  cost  of  his  popu- 
larity, and  year  by  year  as  his  popularity  waned,  he  saw 
the  prospect  of  **  justice  for  Ireland,'*  as  he  conceived 
the  term,  vanishing  into  a  more  and  more  distant 
future. 

In  the  autumn  of  1836  a  commercial  panic  occurred 
through  the  failure  of  the  Agricultural  Bank,  and  in 
the  run  upon  the  banks  which  followed,  the  National 
Bank,  which  he  had  founded,  and  to  the  support  of 
which  his  whole  fortune  was  pledged,  was  in  great 
danger.  He  experienced  the  pressure  which  he  had 
exhorted  the  Irish  to  apply  to  the  Government  five 
years  before,  and  he  saw  that  the  holders  of  notes 
had  no  more  compassion  for  the  Liberator's  bank . 
than  for  the  Bank  of  Ireland.  In  the  beginning  of 
1837  he  was  in  open  conflict  with  Sbarman  Crawford 
upon  the  renewal  of  coercion,  which  he  had  thought 
justifiable,  and  upon  the  Government  plan  for  dealing 
with  the  Tithe  question,  and  with  Smith  O'Brien  for 
his  advocacy  of  a  State  endowment  for  the  Roman 
Catholic  clergy  and  his  opposition  to  the  ballot.  In  the 
autumn  severe  disputes  occurred,  especially  in  the  ship- 


142  LIFE  OF  DANIEL  O'OONNELL. 

building  trade,  between  the  Dublin  trades  unions  and  the 
employers  of  labour.  In  a  speech  on  November  7th 
at  the  Dublin  Trades  Political  Union,  O'Connell 
espoused  the  side  of  the  masters,  and,  with  great 
-courage  and  devotion  to  his  principles,  denounced 
strikes  and  condemned  the  men.  He  was  instantly  the 
mark  for  their  most  violent  abuse.  He  was  hooted  by 
his  own  constituents  in  the  streets  of  Dublin.  He  had 
interviews  for  hours  together  with  the  trades  union 
leaders,  and  took  nothing  by  his  arguments.  He  boldly 
challenged  discussion,  and  held  meetings  in  January  1838 
to  debate  the  question.  The  workmen  forced  their  way 
in  and  denied  him  a  hearing.  At  one  meeting  he  was 
compelled  to  stand  for  nearly  two  hours  the  centre  of 
indescribable  confusion,  never  able  to  utter  more  than 
two  or  three  sentences,  and  for  the  most  part  wholly 
inaudible.  His  popularity  in  Ireland  seemed  almost 
gone. 

Scarcely  had  Parliament  reassembled  in  1838  than 
he  found  himself  again  in  conflict  with  the  House  of 
Commons.  It  was  a  matter  of  notoriety  that  commit- 
tees upon  election  petitions,  though  they  sat  as  judges 
and  were  sworn  to  decide  conscientiously,  voted  simply 
as  loyal  partisans.  In  November  1837,  Buller  had 
obtained  leave  to  bring  in  a  Bill  to  amend  the  practice 
of  trying  these  petitions,  and  O'Connell,  who  had  suf- 
fered at  the  hands  of  election  committees  himself,  had 
then  proposed  to  transfer  them  to  the  Queen's  Bench. 
On  the  21st  February  1838,  in  a  speech  at  the  '*  Crown 
and  Anchor"  tavern,  he  reverted  to  the  subject. 

Corruption  of  the  worst  kind  [he  said]  existed,  and,  above  all, 
there  was  the  perjury  of  the  Tory  politicians.  Ireland  was  not  safe 
from  the  English  and  Scotch  gentry.  It  was  horrible  to  think  that  a 
body  of  gentlemen,  who  ranked  high  in  society,  who  were  themselves 


WHIG  ALLIANCE,  143 

administrators  of  the  law,  and  who  ought,  therefore,  to  be  above  all 
suspicion,  and  who  ought  to  set  an  example  to  others — was  ft  not 
horrible  that  they  should  be  perjuring  themselves  in  the  Committees 
of  the  House  of  Commons  ?  The  time  was  come  when  this  should  be 
proclaimed  boldly.  He  was  ready  to  be  a  martyr  to  justice  and 
truth,  but  not  to  false  swearing,  and  he  repeated  that  there  was  foul 
perjury  in  the  Toi*y  Committees  of  the  House  of  Commons. 


The  truth  of  the  charge  was  hardly  deniable,  but  it 
excited  the  wrath  of  those  who  suffered  from  the  impu- 
tation. On  the  23rd  Lord  Maidstone  read  the  report  in 
the  House  of  Commons,  and  asked  O'Connell  if  it  was 
correct.  "  I  did  say  every  word  of  that,"  replied 
O'Connell,  **  and  I  believe  it  to  be  perfectly  true.  Is 
there  a  man  who  will  put  his  hand  on  his  heart  and  say 
upon  his  honour  as  a  gentleman  that  he  does  not 
believe  it  to  be  substantially  true  ?  *'  Lord  Maidstone, 
without  going  through  this  or  any  milder  form  of  denial, 
gave  notice  that  he  would  call  the  attention  of  the 
House  to  the  speech  on  the  26th.  The  day  came,  and  the 
obnoxious  passage  was  read  by  the  Clerk  of  the  House. 
O'Connell,  in  a  long  speech,  admitted  and  justified  his 
words.  Lord  Maidstone  moved  **  that  the  words  were 
a  false  and  scandalous  imputation  upon  the  honour  of 
the  House."  A  long  debate  followed.  Ministers  voted 
against  the  motion,  but  it  was  carried  by  268  to  254. 
A  motion  that  O'Connell  should  be  reprimanded  was 
carried,  and  on  the  28th  he  was  ordered  to  stand  up  in 
bis  place,  and  received  from  the  Speaker  a  severe  and 
lengthy  censure.  He  was  perfectly  unabashed.  With- 
out a  moment's  loss  of  time,  or  so  much  as  resuming 
bis  seat,  he  gave  notice  of  a  motion  for  a  committee  to 
investigate  the  whole  matter,  concluding  with  the  words 
*^  I  have  repented  of  nothing ;  I  mean  not  to  use  harsh 
or  offensive  language.     I  repeat  what  I  have  said^  but  I 


144  LIFE  OF  DANIEL  O'CONNELL. 

wish  I  could  find  terms  less  offensive  in  themselves- 
and  equally  significant/' 

The  Ministry  had  made  more  than  one  attempt  to- 
reward  O'Conneirs  staunch  support.  He  was  very 
near  being  made  Irish  Attorney-General  in  1837. 
Meeting  Mr.  John  Ball  and  one  of  the  Irish  members 
one  day  in  that  year  at  the  corner  of  Downing  Street, 
he  cried,  **  Congratulate  me ;  I  am  Attorney- General 
for  Ireland.  I  have  just  been  with  Lord  Melbourne, 
and  have  determined  to  accept  the  office.  But  nothing 
must  be  said  for  the  present."  The  King,  however, 
heard  of  the  appointment,  and  put  pressure  upon  Mel- 
bourne to  revoke  it."^  In  1838,  Joy,  Chief  Baron  of 
the  Irish  Exchequer,  died.  Melbourne  was  anxious  to 
promote  O'Connell,  but  it  was  thought  that  to  set 
him  to  preside  over  the  Court,  which  had  exclusive 
cognizance  of  those  writs  of  rebellion,  which  he  had  so 
often  denounced  and  contested,  would  be  unwise.  The 
post  was  therefore  offered  to  O'Loghlen,  who  was 
Master  of  the  Rolls.  O'Loghlen  was  willing  to  consent 
to  the  change,  but  the  vacancy  in  the  Rolls  thereby  created 
was,  when  offered  to  O'Connell,  refused.  O'Loghlen  was 
not  transferred,  and  Woulfe  became  Chief  Baron.  It  was 
not  without  a  struggle  that  O'Connell  refused  this  promo- 
tion.  He  told  the  House  of  Commons  in  1840  that  one 
reason  for  his  refusal  was  that  he  feared  he  might  not  deal 
impartially  with  litigants,  and  that  in  dread  of  favouring^ 
Roman  Catholics  he  might  find  himself  unfairly  hostile 
to  them.  But  the  principal  reason  was  that  he  felt 
Ireland  would  soon  have  need  of  him  again. 

In  1838  Russell  introduced  the  sixth  Tithe  BilL 
The  appropriation  clause,  upon  which  the  Whigs  had 

*  "  O'Connell,"  by  John  Ball,  MacmiUari's  Magazine,  xxiii.,  222. 


WHIG  ALLIANCE.  145 

come  into  power,  had  been  abandoned  the  year  before. 
Its  place  was  taken  by  a  tax  of  ten  per  cent,  upon 
the  incomes  of  the  clergy  for  educational  purposes. 
This,  too,  was  given  up.  It  was  proposed  that  the 
tithe  rent-charge  should  ultimately  cease  as  an  eccle- 
siastical revenue  and  be  diverted  to  education.  The 
opposition  of  the  House  of  Lords  was  fatal  to  this,  and 
the  Bill  ultimately  passed  much  in  the  form  in  which 
Peel  had  introduced  it  three  years  before.  O'Connell 
passively  acquiesced,  but  the  Bill  was  disappointing. 
By  removing  various  glaring  abuses  in  the  Church  of 
Ireland  it  strengthened  her  general  position.  Whether 
or  not  the  rent-charge  was  generally  added  to  the  old 
rents  by  the  landlords,  so  as  to  be  ultimately  as  much  a 
burden  on  the  tenants  as  the  old  tithe,  is  much  dis- 
puted, but  the  whole  measure  seemed  to  be  of  a  hesi- 
tating character,  and  convinced  O'Connell  that  the  great 
Whig  experiment  was  a  failure.  He  betook  himself 
to  a  last  agitation  for  **  justice  to  Ireland  **  as  distinct 
from  Bepeal. 

In  August  of  1838  he  founded  his  **  Precursor 
Society."  Its  name  was  supposed  to  mean,  though  few 
Irishmen  divined  it,  that  it  was  to  be  the  forerunner  of 
Repeal,  but  his  choice  of  names  for  his  societies 
was  almost  uniformly  infelicitous.  It  was  to  agitate  for 
complete  corporate  Reform,  extension  of  the  suffrage, 
total  abolition  of  compulsory  Church  support,  and  ade- 
qaate  representation  in  Parliament.  But  the  Irish  were 
not  united  in  the  agitation.  Many  disapproved  of  any- 
thing less  than  a  cry  for  Repeal.  Connaught,  which 
had  given  the  last  and  least  assistance  to  Emancipation, 
stood  aloof  from  the  Precursors  altogether.  **  Ireland," 
O'Connell  wrote  to  Dr.  MacHale  in  January  1839, 
**  has  never  acted  together  since  the  close  of  the  Eman- 

10 


146  LIFE  OF  BANIEL  0' CONN  ELL, 

cipation  fight/'  The  society  was,  however,  sufficiently 
strong  to  alarm  the  Ministry.  They  wrote  to  O'Oon- 
nell  ''  menacingly  '*  about  it,  and  used  every  means  in 
their  power  to  impede  its  organization  ;  but  the  society 
was  not  checked.  Agitation  was  as  yet  the  work  only  of 
his  immediate  circle  of  associates,  nor  was  it  directed 
very  openly  to  its  object,  but  it  deserved  its  name. 
Unknown,  perhaps,  even  to  O'Connell  himself,  Ireland 
was  on  the  very  eve  of  the  struggle  for  Repeal. 


147 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

THE   REPEAL   ASSOCIATION. 

1840-1843. 

Repeal  Association  founded — Irish  Municipal  Reform — O'Connell  Lord 
Mayor  of  Dublin — The  founding  of  the  Nation — The  Repeal 
Debate — The  Monster  Meetings  —  The  Mallow  Defiance  — 
Clontarf. 

On  April  15th  1840  the  Repeal  Association  was  founded. 
The  meeting  was  held  in  the  Great  Room  of  the  Corn 
Exchange;  only  a  sprinkling  of  persons  were  seen  in 
the  room ;  not  a  hundred  in  all  were  there.  They 
waited  till  it  became  impossible  to  wait  longer,  and  to 
that  handful  of  people  0*Connell  unfolded  his  plan. 
The  Association  was  formed  at  first  under  the  title  of 
the  National  Society  and  rules  were  adopted. 

He  was  not  disheartened ;  he  remembered  the  first 
meeting  of  the  Catholic  Association.  He  had  himself 
been  discouraging  agitation  for  Repeal ;  he  knew  that  it 
would  bo  a  work  of  time  to  convince  people  of  his 
change  of  policy.  *'  As  soon/*  he  said,  **  as  they  begin 
to  find  out  I  am  thoroughly  in  earnest,  they  will  come 
flocking  in  to  the  Association."  In  truth,  however, 
for  some  time  Dublin  was  singularly  indifferent  to  the 
birth  of  his  now  society.  He  had  founded  nearly  a  dozen 
in  the  previous  ten  years,  beside  some  which  were  still- 

10  • 


148  LIFE  OF  DANIEL  O'CONNELL, 

born,  and  associations  had  lost  their  novelty.  Eepeal 
was  popular,  and  he  had  set  Eepeal  aside ;  the  Whigs 
were  unpopular,  and  he  had  supported  them.  He  had 
offended  the  landlords  by  ousting  them  from  their 
dominion  in  the  counties  ;  the  priests  by  acquiescing  in 
a  Tithes  Act,  which  only  strengthened  the  Church  of 
Ireland  ;  the  artisans  by  denouncing  trades  unions ;  the 
peasants  by  obtaining  for  them  so  little  but  coercion  acts 
after  six  years^  alliance  with  the  Whigs.  He  was  sur- 
rounded by  henchmen  of  dubious  respectability  and  defi- 
cient talent.  His  enemies  had  brought  to  light  numbers 
of  scandals,  which,  however  exaggerated,  were  distressing 
to  men  of  probity.  He  insisted  on  paying  the  funds  of 
the  **  Precursor  Society "  into  his  own  bank  account 
instead  of  the  Treasurer's';  he  had  traded  on  the  strength 
of  his  name;  he  had  founded  a  bank  himself;  his  son  had 
founded  a  brewery.  Another  son  and  a  son-in-law  were 
placemen  under  the  alien  Saxon  Government.  Eman- 
cipation was  now  an  old  tale.  Those  who  had  fought  in 
that  agitation  w6re  aged  or  dead.  A  younger  genera- 
tion had  grown  up,  to  whom  O^Conneirs  services  were 
matter  of  report ;  who  saw  in  him  a  hero  indeed,  but 
one  sinking  into  old  age  after  years  of  failure.  Many 
of  the  Catholics  had  been  educated  on  the  English 
model,  and  prided  themselves  on  their  English  ideas; 
many  of  them  were  suppliants  for  Government  patron- 
age. The  merchants,  the  backbone  of  the  first  Catholic 
agitation,  were  impoverished,  and  stood  aloof  from 
politics ;  the  priests,  the  backbone  of  the  second,  were 
satisfied  with  Emancipation,  and  had  no  great  ardour 
for  Repeal.  To  this  indifierent  people  O'Connell  ap- 
pealed at  the  age  of  sixty-five  with  the  calm  confidence 
of  middle  life,  and  the  hopeful  energy  of  youth. 

His  letters  to  Dr.  MacHale  at  this  time  set  out  his 


THE  REPEAL  ASSOCIATION.  149 

reasons  and  the  plan  which  he  had  in  his  mind.  He 
was  convinced  that  the  Tories  would  soon  be  in  power ; 
the  Whigs  were  tottering  to  their  fall.  What  the  Whigs 
had  not  been  able  to  do,  the  Tories  would  not  attempt 
to  do  for  Ireland ;  much  of  what  the  Whigs  had  done 
would  be  undone  by  the  Tories.  Four  grievances  were  to 
be  remedied,  first  (and  writing  to  a  Roman  Catholic  Arch- 
bishop, he  adroitly  called  it  the  greatest),  was  the  State 
Church  of  the  minority — nothing  but  Repeal  could 
abolish  national  payments  for  this  alien  Church  ;  second, 
full  reform  of  corporations  was  still  withheld ;  third, 
equality  of  political  franchise  was  denied ;  fourth,  the 
Irish  parliamentary  representation  was  insufficient.  The 
method  was  to  be  the  old  one  of  the  Catholic  Associa- 
tion, a  host  of  small  subscriptions  from  a  multitude  of 
humble  subscribers. 

I  can  give  Your  Grace  the  result  of  thirty  years  and  more  of  expe- 
rience, and  it  is  this :  that  once  got  a  parish  into  a  mood  of  contribu- 
ting to  public  purposes,  the  more  such  purposes  are  brought  before 
them,  the  more  liberal  will  bo  each  aggregate  contribution.  So  many 
persons  will  not  give  five  pounds  or  live  shillings,  but  many  more  will 
give  one  shilling;  the  contributors  should  be  individually  solicited  to 
give  sums  smaller  than  each  can  reasonably  afford. 

During  the  summer  and  autumn  he  addressed  inces- 
sant meetings.  He  flew  from  Mullingar  to  Cork,  from 
Cork  to  Dublin,  from  Dublin  to  Belfast,  from  Belfast  to 
Leeds,  from  Leeds  to  Leicester.  Towards  the  end  of 
1840  he  advocated  the  exclusive  consuraption  of  Irish 
manufactures,  but  the  expedient  soon  proved  itself  use- 
less. The  rich  would  not,  and  the  poor  could  not  buy, 
and  to  delude  those  whose  patriotism  got  the  better  of 
their  taste,  English  goods  wore  imported  into  Ireland, 
and  were  marked  and  sold  as  of  Irisii  manufacture.  He 
carefully  modelled  the  Repeal  Association  upon  the  Catho- 
lic Association.     The  Act  of  1793  was  still  unrepealed. 


150  LIFE  OF  DANIEL  O'CONNELL. 

and  therefore  a  representative  character  was  carefully 
disclaimed.  There  were  three  classes,  associates  pay- 
ing Is.  a  year,  members  paying  £1,  volunteers  paying 
d610.  All  the  proceedings  were  completely  open.  There 
were  special  committees,  which,  during  the  existence  of 
the  Association,  prepared  as  many  as  sixty-five  reports, 
and  a  general  committee  of  about  eighty  persons,  which 
conducted  general  business,  and  considered  the  ac- 
counts, reports,  resolutions,  and  circulars  of  the  Asso- 
ciation, and  there  were  weekly  meetings  of  the  Associa- 
tion itself.  There  were  Eepeal  wardens,  who  collected 
the  rent,  answerable  to  Eepeal  inspectors,  who  were 
in  turn  controlled  by  provincial  inspectors.  The  old 
machinery  of  the  Catholic  Association  was  ready  to 
hand,  it  only  needed  to  be  furbished  up  again ;  but 
many  of  its  old  officers  were  dead  or  incapacitated,  and 
it  was  not  for  some  time  that  O'Connell  could  find 
among  the  younger  generation  men  fit  to  take  their 
place  and  bring  the  whole  scheme  into  operation. 

The  proximate  cause  of  the  founding  of  the  Eepeal 
Association  was  Stanley's  Irish  Eegistration  Bill  of 
1840.  By  its  restrictions  upon  registration  it  practi- 
cally limited  the  franchise.  O'Connell  attacked  the 
Bill  warmly,  and  was  warmly  attacked  in  return.  On 
June  11th  he  was  heard  with  so  much  impatience  and 
interruption  that,  losing  his  temper,  he  cried  :  "  This  is 
a  Bill  to  trample  on  the  rights  of  the  people  of  Ireland. 
If  you  were  ten  times  as  beastly  in  your  uproar  and 
bellowing  I  should  still  feel  it  my  duty  to  interpose  to 
prevent  this  injustice";  and  in  spite  of  the  angry 
scene  which  followed,  he  would  not  withdraw  the 
phrase.  The  Bill,  however,  dropped  for  the  session  of 
1840.  A  similar  fate  had  befallen  the  Irish  Municipal 
Eeform  Bill  in  the  previous  year.     Now  it  passed,  but, 


THE  REPEAL  ASSOCIATION.  151 

owing  to  the  amendments  of  the  Lords,  in  a  form  so 
restricted,  as  to  make  it  highly  unsatisfactory  to  O^Con- 
nell. 

In  1841  the  Whig  Ministry  was  defeated  ;  it  dissolved 
Parliament  on  June  23rd,  and  was  utterly  routed  at 
the  elections.  O'Connell  and  his  party  suffered  too. 
He  lost  his  own  seat  for  Dublin,  and  was  obliged  to 
take  refuge  at  Cork,  and  many  elections  went  against 
his  party.  He  returned  with  a  ^*  tail ''  reduced  to  less 
than  a  dozen,  of  whom  four  were  members  of  his  own 
family,  and  two  others,  Dillon  Browne  and  Somers,  were 
his  unscrupulous  partisans.  Nor  was  the  Kepeal  move- 
ment making  much  headway.  He  prepared  several 
reports  for  the  Association,  in  the  first  of  which,  issued 
on  May  4th  1840,  he  had  elaborated  a  scheme  for  an 
Irish  Parliament  of  300  members,  127  borough  and  173 
county  members,  but  it  had  not  struck  the  popular 
imagination.  A  vast  meeting  had  been  held  at  Croker*s 
Hill,  Kilkenny,  in  October,  with  20,000  mounted  men, 
and  ten  times  as  many  on  foot,  but  nothing  came 
of  it.  He  journeyed  to  and  fro  all  over  Ireland,  and 
late  in  1841  visited  Ulster.  The  Orangemen  of  Belfast 
menaced  him  with  condign  punishment  if  he  ventured 
to  appear  there.  Violence  was  intended  to  be  offered 
him  on  the  way.  His  carriage  was  to  have  been 
waylaid  between  two  high  banks  which  oommanded  the 
road,  and  stones  hailed  upon  it  till  carriage  and  occu- 
pant were  crushed.  He  escaped  only  by  changing  the 
time  of  his  journey,  and  to  secure  changes  of  horses 
at  the  posting-houses  was  obliged  to  travel  under  the 
name  of  a  popular  ventriloquist.  His  meeting  had 
to  be  protected  with  five  companies  of  foot,  two  troops 
of  horse,  and  2,000  police.  The  windows  of  his 
room  were  broken,  and  Dawson,  Peel's  brother-in-law. 


152  LIFE  OF  DANIEL  O'CONNELL, 

vapoured  about  *^  every  river  in  Ireland  being  another 
Boyne  if  necessary."  In  the  autumn  of  1842  he 
endeavoured  to  stimulate  the  movement  by  appointing 
Kay,  the  secretary  of  the  Association,  Steele,  the  Head 
Pacificator,  Daunt,  and  his  son,  John  O'Connell,  Re- 
peal Inspectors,  to  visit  the  provinces  and  enrol  mem- 
bers. But  the  missionaries  were  not  more  powerful  than 
their  master,  and  through  1842  the  agitation  lagged. 
Their  efforts  did,  indeed,  raise  the  rent  from  i645 
for  the  week  before  they  set  out  to  d6235  for  the  week 
after  their  return,  but  the  great  stride  that  was  taken 
at  the  end  of  1842  and  the  beginning  of  1843  was  not 
theirs.  It  was  due  to  two  events :  the  founding  of 
the  Nation  on  October  15th  1842,  and  the  Repeal  de- 
bate in  the  Dublin  Corporation  on  February  25th 
1843. 

The  founding  of  the  Nation  as  the  newspaper  of  the 
new  Repeal  movement  meant  that  the  younger  generation 
of  Irishmen  was  willing  to  cast  in  its  lot  with  the  old. 
Davis,  poet  and  patriot,  John  Blake  Dillon,  C.  Gavan 
Duffy,  John  Cornelius  O'Callaghan,  ClarenceMangan,  and 
J.  O'Neill  Daunt  were  the  leaders  in  the  enterprise.  The 
newspaper  was  instantly  successful ;  the  first  issue  could 
have  been  sold  twice  over.  The  newsvendors  clamoured 
round  the  office,  breaking  in  the  windows  in  their 
eagerness  to  procure  copies.  O'ConnelPs  practical  mind 
was  apt  to  make  the  Repeal  argument  too  purely  an 
appeal  to  Irish  pockets.  The  motto  of  the  Nation  was 
a  saying  of  Stephen  Woulfe,  *'  to  create  and  foster 
public  opinion  in  Ireland,  and  to  make  it  racy  of  the 
soil.''  O'Connell  told  the  Irish  that  the  Union  loaded 
thenJ  with  debts  they  had  not  contracted,  and  deprived 
them  of  the  manufactures  they  had  created  ;  that  the 
artisans  of   Dublin   had   dropped  in  forty   years  from 


THE  REPEAL  ASSOCIATION.  153 

5,000  to  700 ;  the  workmen  in  the  woollen  trade  from 
150,000  to  6,000 ;  that  Repeal  would  raise  their  wages 
and  lower  their  taxes.  Davis  and  Duffy  sought  to  make 
them  feel  themselves  a  nation,  talked  to  them  of  Brian 
Boru,  and  spelt  his  name  Borhoime ;  of  O'SuUivan, 
whom  they  wrote  O'Suillebhain  ;  of  011am  Fodlah,  and 
Eoghan  Euadh  O'Neill.  They  told  them  that  ''Ire- 
land ought  to  have  a  foreign  policy,  but  not  necessarily 
the  foreign  policy  of  England."  O'Connell  had  put  it 
more  forcibly,  but  with  the  same  meaning,  **  If  France 
puts  England  into  a  difficulty,  the  first  hostile  shot  that 's 
fired  in  the  Channel  I  ^11  have  the  Government  in  my 
hand.'^  **  England's  adversity  is  Ireland's  opportunity,^' 
was  the  doctrine  of  them  both. 

The  Irish  Municipal  Reform  Act  had  been  welcomed 
in  Dublin  by  the  election  of  O'Connell  on  November 
Ist  1841  to  the  Lord  Mayoralty  for  1842.  He  was 
the  first  Roman  Catholic  who  had  filled  that  office, 
and  with  great  tact  he  negotiated  an  arrangement  by 
which  it  should  thereafter  be  held  by  Protestants  and 
Roman  Catholics  alternately.  The  sight  of  their  old 
leader  in  that  position  and  the  pomp  with  which  he 
was  surrounded  pleased  and  inspirited  the  people  of 
Dublin.  In  1843  O'Connell,  now  an  alderman,  de- 
cided to  attract  attention  to  the  question  of  Repeal  by 
a  debate  in  the  Corporation,  and  on  February  25th  he 
brought  on  a  motion  in  its  favour.  A  great  crowd 
gathered  in  the  Assembly  House  in  William  Street,  and 
a  still  greater  in  the  street  outside.  O'Connell  spoke 
for  upwards  of  four  hoursy  and  delivered  a  speech, 
which,  even  among  his,  had  no  superior.  He  arranged 
it,  as  was  his  favourite  manner,  under  heads,  and 
covered  the  whole  ground  with  a  masterly  command 
of  figures   and   arguments.     He  declared  the  Irish  fit 


154  LIFE  OF  DANIEL  O'CONNFLL. 

for  an  independent  parliament,  entitled  to  it  by  im- 
memorial constitutional  right,  and  robbed  of  it  by- 
bribery,  menaces,  and  force,  by  the  craft  of  Pitt,  and  the 
cruelty  of  Castlereagh.  He  affirmed  that  the  Irish  Par- 
liament could  not  by  any  contract  bargain  away  its  own 
existence,  and  that  in  any  case  the  Union  was  morally 
void,  being  procured  by  fraud  and  duress.  He  went 
through  a  vast  parade  of  statistics  to  show  the  in- 
crease of  absenteeism  which  the  Union  had  caused, 
and  the  consequent  decay  of  trade,  and  painted  a  glow- 
ing picture  of  the  wealth,  peace,  and  dignity  which 
would  accrue  to  Ireland  from  the  presence  of  a  Parlia- 
ment in  College  Green.  Isaac  Butt,  then  a  rising 
junior  barrister,  a  professor  in  Dublin  University,  and 
formerly  editor  of  the  Dublin  U?iiversity  Magazine, 
replied  in  a  speech  of  almost  equal  merit.  The  debate 
lasted  for  three  days.  In  an  assembly  of  Irishmen  glad 
to  be  convinced,  O'Connell's  argument  carried  all  before 
it.  He  made  a  triumphant  reply,  and  carried  his 
motion  by  41  to  15. 

From  that  day  the  Kepeal  Association  and  its  work 
grew  apace.  The  average  rent  in  January  1843  had 
been  about  ^150  per  week  ;  for  the  last  week  in  Feb- 
ruary it  was  J6342,  for  the  second  in  March  £366,  for 
the  first  in  April  £478,  for  the  last  £683,  for  the  last 
week  in  May  £2,205,  for  the  third  in  June  £3,103,  for 
the  entire  year  £48,400.  The  priests,  headed  by  the 
Bishops  of  Meath  and  Dromore,  and  finally  by  Arch- 
bishop MacHale,  joined  the  Association.  O'Connell's' 
rash  prediction  that  *'  1843  was  to  be  the  Repeal  year,'^ 
seemed  in  a  fair  way  to  be  realised.  Meetings  were 
arranged  for  every  county ;  the  Association  met  in 
Dublin  twice  a  week ;  the  old  room  on  the  second  floor 
of  the  Corn  Exchange,  which  had  served  the  Catholic 


THE  REPEAL  ASSOCIATION.  155 

Association,  was  but  eight  yards  by  sixteen  in  size, 
and  rudely  furnished ;  400  persons  overcrowded  it.  A 
large  hall  was  projected  to  hold  first  twice  as  many, 
then  1,200,  finally  5,000.  With  grim  humour  they 
obtained  a  site  from  an  an ti -Repealer,  concealing  the 
object  of  the  bargain  till  the  contract  was  signed.  The 
hall  was  completed  and  opened  in  October,  and  un- 
couthly  called  Conciliation  Hall.  The  business  of  the 
Association  became  enormous.  In  1841  its  staff  of 
clerks  had  been  9  ;  in  1842,  7  ;  by  the  end  of  1843  they 
numbered  48.  Everything  was  conducted  with  the 
regularity  and  routine  of  a  great  counting-house.  There 
were  58  folio  volumes  of  documents  containing  44,000 
separate  papers,  40  quarto  volumes  of  letters,  and  22 
folio  volumes  of  vouchers  for  subscriptions,  containing 
33,000  vouchers.  There  were  cash  books,  day  books, 
minute  books,  and  scrap  books  fully  indexed ;  lists  of 
the  three  classes  of  members ;  lists  of  American  contri- 
butors. A  Repeal  police  was  instituted,  over  which  a 
"  Head  Pacificator,"  Tom  Steele,  presided.  If  tumult 
broke  out  in  any  district  in  Ireland,  any  rising  of 
"Terry  Alts,"  or  conflict  of  **Gows"  and  of  "  Po- 
leens,"  it  was  the  business  of  the  local  Repeal  police, 
or,  if  necessary,  of  the  august  Head  Pacificator  himself, 
to  repair  to  the  spot  and  compose  the  quarrel.  Arbitra- 
tion Courts  were  established,  which  soon  threatened  to 
leave  the  courts  of  the  Queen  nothing  to  do.  The  card 
of  membership,  which  had  hitherto  been  plain  and  busi- 
ness-like, expanded,  in  deference  to  the  national  aspira- 
tions, into  a  document  highly  emblematic  of  Ireland's 
history  and  Ireland's  wrongs,  the  design  of  Mr.  John 
Cornelius  O'Callaghan.  Seventy  thousand  of  them  were 
issued  during  the  year.  A  host  of  little  books  upon 
Irish  history,  Irish  poetry,  and  Irish   art,  poured  from 


156  LIFE  OF  DANIEL  O'CONNELL. 

the  press  of  James  Duflfy.  O'Connell's  activity  was  in- 
cessant and  marvellous  in  a  man  of  his  years.  From 
meeting  to  meeting  he  travelled  in  the  year  some  five 
thousand  miles.  Beside  presiding  at  the  public  and 
committee  meetings  of  the  Association,  and  directing, 
if  not  executing,  the  greater  part  of  its  business  with 
vast  forethought  and  attention  to  detail,  he  attended  in 
March  three,  in  May  six,  in  June  nine,  in  July  three, 
in  August  five,  in  September  three  huge  meetings,  and 
his  admirers  were  never  content  with  a  short  speech  from 
him.  A  series  of  meetings,  which  the  Times  dubbed 
*^  Monster  Meetings,'"*  was  projected  and  carried  out. 
The  number  of  persons  attending  them  could  only  be 
guessed,  and  must  have  been  grossly  exaggerated,  but 
it  is  certain  that  enormous  crowds  gathered  almost  day 
after  day  in  different  parts  of  Ireland  to  agitate  for 
Repeal.  In  April  nine  meetings  were  held,  at  which  it 
was  estimated  620,000  persons  attended ;  one  meeting 
of  110,000  was  held  at  Limerick;  and  two  of  150,000 
at  Kells  and  Carrickmacross  respectively.  At  eleven 
meetings  in  May  two  millions  and  a  quarter  persons 
were  present ;  they  included  one  of  170,000  at  Sligo, 
one  of  150,000  at  Mullingar,  one  of  260,000  at  Long- 
ford, one  of  300,000  at  Charleville,  two  of  400,000  at 
Armagh  and  Cashel  respectively,  and  one  of  500,000  at 
Cork.  Two  millions  and  three-quarter  persons  attended 
nine  meetings  in  June,  at  the  least  of  which  100,000 
were  present,  at  two  300,000,  at  two  400,000  and  up- 
wards, and  at  one  in  Clare  700,000.  There  were 
three  meetings  of  300,000  in  July,  and  one  of  500,000. 
On  August  15th,  750,000*  persons  assembled  at  Tara, 

*  Daunt,  in  his  Recollections,  puts  the  number  at  1,200,000.  If 
that  were  so,  three-fourths  of  the  adult  males  of  Ireland  must  have 
been  present. 


THE  REPEAL  ASSOCIATION'.  157 

in  Meath,  and  on  the  same  day  300,000  more  at  Clon- 
tibret  in  Monaghan,  and  the  series  was  closed  by  two  of 
400,000  each  at  an  interval  of  a  week  at  Lismore  and 
the  Eath  of  Mullaghmast. 

These  numbers  were  probably  no  more  than  the 
sanguine  guesses  of  triumphant  enthusiasts.  What  was 
more  extraordinary,  and  to  the  Government  more 
ominous  than  even  these  numbers,  was  the  complete 
Orderliness  of  the  meetings.  They  were  held  in  the 
open  air,  and  even  under  cover  not  a  tenth  of  those 
huge  multitudes  could  have  heard  the  speaker's  voice. 
They  were  held  in  the  heat  of  summer,  and  the  dust 
and  pressure  of  so  many  persons  must  have  aggravated 
the  thirst  natural  to  the  season  of  the  year.  Yet  the 
tedium  of  standing  and  hearing  nothing  did  not  pro- 
duce disorder,  nor  did  fatigue  and  exhaustion  lead  to 
drunkenness.  The  meeting  at  the  Hill  of  Tara  was  a 
sight  peculiarly  solemn  and  afifecting.  Tara  was  the 
coronation  place  of  Irish  kings ;  the  day,  a  feast  of  the 
Virgin  Mary  of  peculiar  sanctity.  All  night  long  the 
people  gathered  by  thousands  at  the  hill,  and  bivouacked 
under  the  open  sky.  In  the  morning  so  vast  a  crowd 
covered  the  place  of  meeting,  that  there  was  no  one 
place  from  which  the  whole  of  it  could  be  surveyed. 
Dublin  was  denuded  of  public  conveyances.  It  seemed 
deserted  by  its  inhabitants.  For  miles  along  the  roads 
leading  to  the  hill  carriages  were  drawn  up  and  horses 
picketed  by  the  wayside.  No  one  was  left  to  watoh 
them  ;  yet  they  suffered  neither  theft  nor  injury.  If  the 
gathering  was  a  triumph  for  O'Connell,  it  was  a  still 
greater  triumph  for  Father  Matbew.  Three-fourths  of 
the  crowd  were  pledged  teetotallers.  From  dawn  till 
noon  at  forty  altars  priests  were  celebrating  mass  under 
the  summer  sun,  and  over  the  heads  of  kneeling  thoa- 


158  LIFT]  OF  DANIEL  O'CONNELL, 

sands  the  bell  tinkled,  the  smoke  of  incense  quivered, 
and  the  Host  was  held  on  high.  Towards  noon  O'Con- 
nell  came,  attended  by  a  procession  of  ten  thousand 
horsemen,  mustered  by  marshals  in  orderly  battalions. 
Forty- two  bands  raised  a  discordant  note  of  triumph. 
The  crowds  made  way  for  the  Liberator,  but  so  great 
was  the  press,  that  he  was  two  hours  in  passing  the  last 
mile.  When  the  platform  was  reached  he  delivered  a 
speech,  but  it  was  not  his  speaking  that  produced  the 
effect  of  the  day.  That  silent  orderly  crowd  was  ten  times 
more  eloquent  than  he,  a  disciplined  army  obedient  to 
his  beck  and  nod.  At  Tara  the  uncrowned  king  assem- 
bled his  subjects;  on  October  1st  at  the  Rath  of  Mul- 
laghmast  his  subjects  offered  their  king  a  crown.  Duffy 
suggested  that  a  quaint  and  uncomely  cap,  which  was 
part  of  the  traditional  garb  of  an  independent  Irish  king, 
should  be  again  brought  into  use.  At  the  conclusion 
of  the  meeting  a  deputation  consisting  of  John  Hogan, 
an  Irish  national  sculptor,  Henry  MacManus,  an  Irish 
national  painter,  John  Cornelius  O'Callaghan,  the  de- 
signer of  the  national  symbolism  of  the  members^  card, 
and  his  brother  Mark,  solemnly  advanced  through  the 
€rowd,  and  gravely  crowned  O'Connell  with  the  Irish 
national  cap.  The  proceeding,  in  itself  so  ridiculous 
and  theatrical,  appeared  in  the  tense  state  of  public 
feeling,  to  be  nothing  short  of  sublime. 

For  fifteen  months  the  agitation  had  been  proceeding 
unchecked ;  for  seven  it  had  been  of  the  most  formid- 
able proportions.  The  apprehensions,  which  the  sight  of 
these  unarmed  armies  of  disciplined  men  excited  in  the 
minds  of  ministers,  were  justified  by  the  language  which 
O^Connell  and  his  followers  publicly  employed.  Davis, 
the  poet  of  the  Nation,  in  lines  which,  though  often  un- 
polished, were  singularly  terse  and  fiery,  was  rousing  a 


THE  REPEAL  ASSOCIATION.  159 

spirit  of  antagonism  to  England,  and  inculcating  the 
duty  of  the  struggle  to  be  free,  in  language  which  was 
meaningless  if  it  did  not  advocate  an  ultimate  appeal  to 
force.  The  whole  teaching  of  his  colleagues  of  the 
"  Young  Ireland  '^  party  was  instinct  with  the  feeling 
that,  although  the  gift  of  freedom  might  perhaps  be 
accepted  if  extorted  by  mere  menaces,  it  was  hardly 
worth  having  unless  won  by  force  of  arms.  From  the 
point  of  view  of  Her  Majesty's  Government,  responsible 
for  peace  and  order  and  for  the  dominions  of  the 
Crown,  this  was  sedition,  a  veiled  incitement  to  rebel- 
lion ;  and  yet  O'Connell,  who  viewed  the  growing  power 
and  unfamiliar  tone  of  the  Natiofi  with  jealousy,  and  en- 
deavoured to  check  it  by  private  remonstrance,  in  public 
thought  it  necessary  to  echo  its  language.  On  May 
9th,  questions  were  put  in  the  House  of  Lords  by  Lord 
Roden,  Grand  Master  of  the  Orangemen,  and  by  Lord 
Jocelyn,  his  son,  in  the  House  of  Commons,  as  to  the 
intentions  of  the  Ministry.  Peel  seized  the  opportu- 
nity of  delivering  an  ultimatum  in  reply. 

There  is  no  influence  [said  he],  no  power,  no  authority,  which  the 
prerogatives  of  the  Crown  and  the  existing  law  give  the  Government, 
which  shall  not  be  exercised  for  the  purpose  of  maintaining  the  Union, 
the  dissolution  of  which  would  involve  not  merely  the  repeal  of  the 
Act  of  Parliament,  but  the  dismemberment  of  this  great  Empire.  .  .  . 
I  am  prepared  to  make  the  declaration  which  was  m»de,  and  nobly 
made,  by  my  predecessor.  Lord  Althorp,  that  deprecating  as  I  do  all 
war,  and  especially  civil  war,  there  is  no  alternative  which  I  do  not 
think  preferable  to  the  dismemberment  of  this  Empire. 

The  words  were  weighty  ;  their  meaning  was  not  to  be 
mistaken.  To  some  of  the  Irish  they  sounded  the  knell 
of  their  hopes,  to  others  the  tocsin  of  a  welcome  war* 
O'Connell  interpreted  them  to  moan  that  agitation  for  a 
political  object,  however  unanimous,  and  however  consti- 
tutional, was  to  be  met  with  a  cold  and  resolute  denial. 


160  LIFE  OF  DANIEL  O'CONNELL, 

I  belong  [he  cried]  to  a  nation  of  eight  millions,  and  there  is  besides 
a  million  of  Irishmen  in  England.  If  Sir  Robert  Peel  has  the  audacity 
to  cause  a  contest  to  take  place  between  the  two  countries,  we  will  put 
him  in  the  wrong,  for  we  will  begin  no  rebellion ;  but  I  tell  him  from 
this  place  that  he  dare  not  begin  that  strife  against  Ireland. 

The  meaning  of  the  words  was  ohvious.  They 
meant  that,  however  peacefully  disposed,  events  might 
come  in  which  he  would  be  prepared  to  declare  war.  The 
people  so  understood  him ;  already  the  Nation  was 
writing  about  ^*  being  ready  for  death,  for  liberty.'^ 

They  talk  of  civil  war  [he  said  on  another  occasion],  but  while  Hive 
there  shall  be  no  civil  war.  But  if  others  invade  us,  that  is  not  civil 
war,  and  I  promise  them  that  there  is  not  a  Wellingtonian  of  them  all 
who  would  less  shrink  from  that  contest  than  I,  if  they  will  enforce 
it  upon  us.  We  are  ready  to  keep  the  ground  of  the  constitution  as 
long  as  they  will  allow  us  to  do  so,  but  should  they  throw  us  from 
that  ground,  then  vae  victis  !  between  the  contending  parties. 

At  the  meeting  at  Cashel  on  May  23rd,  after  his 
accustomed  panegyric  upon  the  beauties  of  Ireland,  he 
went  on,  **  Where  was  the  coward  who  would  not  die 
for  such  a  land  ?  .  .  .  He  did  not  like  fighting,  but  let 
their  enemies  attack  them  if  they  dare."  Nor  was  this 
the  mere  ebullition  of  impassioned  oratory.  John 
O'Connell,  his  most  trusted  son  and  henchman,  wrote  to 
the  Morni?ig  Chronicle :  "  We  will  not  attack  ;  I  do  not 
say  we  will  not  defend/' 

The  Government  began  to  act.  On  May  23rd  Sir 
Edward  Sugden,  Lord  Chancellor  of  Ireland,  a  pro- 
foundly learned  lawyer,  but  an  indiscreet  statesman, 
dismissed  from  the  magistracy  Lord  Ffrench,  O'Con- 
nell, his  son  John,  and  thirty-one  others.  The  Irish 
promptly  took  up  the  challenge.  '  The  "rent"  trebled 
in  a  week;  it  leapt  from  £700  to  £2,200;  Smith 
O'Brien  and  many  other  Irish  Whigs  resigned  their 
commissions  of  the  peace.     A  crowd  of  new  members 


THE  REPEAL  ASSOCIATION.  161 

joined  the  Association.  It  was  then  that  O'Connell 
established  the  Arbitration  Courts,  which  quickly 
spread  throughout  the  country.  The  English  Whigs 
censured  the  Chancellor's  act;  Russell  declared  that 
Repeal  was  as  fit  to  be  discussed  in  a  constitutional 
manner  as  any  other  topic;  and  the  Whig  lawyers 
condemned  the  legality  of  the  proceeding.  The  Govern- 
ment, however,  kept  to  its  course.  The  Irish  Arms  Act 
was  expiring ;  they  had  proposed  to  renew  it  with  in- 
creased severity,  and  they  pressed  it  steadily  upon  the 
House  of  Commons.  Whigs,  Radicals,  and  Irish  com- 
bined to  resist  it;  they  fought  it  line  by  line;  it  re- 
mained three  months  in  committee.  Nor  was  it  by  the 
Ministry  alone,  or  in  Ireland  alone,  that  civil  war  was 
expected  and  designed.  From  America  came  the  news 
that  Tyler,  the  President  of  the  United  States,  while 
declining  to  attend  a  Repeal  meeting,  had  declared 
himself  the  strong  friend  of  Repeal.  Sir  Charles  Met- 
calfe, Governor  of  Canada,  reported  to  his  superiors 
that  if  any  aggression  took  place  upon  Ireland  he  could 
not  answer  for  the  peace,  perhaps  not  even  for  the 
security  of  the  Dominion.  In  France  the  Radicals,  with 
Ledru  Rollin  at  their  head,  were  openly  projecting 
armed  assistance  for  the  Irish.  Military  plans  began  to 
be  openly  discussed.  It  was  pointed  out  how  defensible 
a  country  Ireland  was  ;  cavalry  would  be  powerless ;  for 
in  Ireland  rough  stone  walls  took  the  place  of  hedges 
and  made  each  field  a  redoubt.  The  art  of  manufactur- 
ing pikes  was  explained.  O'Connell  told  his  hearers 
at  Kilkenny  on  June  8th  : — 

They  Btood  that  day  at  tho  head  of  a  group  of  men  eufflciont,  if 
they  undorwoiit  military  diHcipline,  to  conquer  Europe.  WoUington 
noTcr  had  such  an  army.  There  were  not  at  Waterloo,  on  both  sides, 
as  many  brave  and  energetic  men.     Howerer,  they  were  not  diaoi- 

11 


162  LIFE  OF  DANIEL  O'CONNELL. 

plined,  but  tell  them  what  to  do,  and  you  would  have  them  disciplined 
in  an  hour.  They  were  as  well  able  to  walk  in  order  after  a  band 
as  if  they  wore  red  coats.  They  were  as  able  to  be  submissive  to  the 
Repeal  wardens,  or  anybody  else  told  to  take  care  of  them,  as  if  they 
were  called  sergeants  or  captains. 

Three  days  later,  at  the  meeting  at  Mallow,  he 
crowned  all  his  utterances  with  his  celebrated  **  Mallow 
defiance  ": — 

Do  you  know  [he  exclaimed],  I  never  felt  such  a  loathing  for 
speechifying  as  I  do  at  present.  The  time  is  coming  when  we  must  be 
doing.  Gentlemen,  you  may  learn  the  alternative  to  live  as  slaves  or 
die  as  freemen.  ...  In  the  midst  of  peace  and  tranquillity  they  are 
covering  our  land  with  troops.  Yes,  I  speak  with  the  awful  determi- 
nation with  which  I  commenced  my  address,  in  consequence  of  news 
received  this  day.  .  .  What  are  Irishmen  that  they  should  be  denied 
an  equal  privilege  ?  Have  we  not  the  ordinary  courage  of  English- 
men ?  Are  we  to  be  called  slaves  ?  Are  we  to  be  trampled  under 
foot  ?  Oh  I  they  shall  never  trample  on  me,  at  least  I  I  say  they  may 
trample  on  me,  but  it  will  be  my  dead  body  they  will  trample  on,  not 
the  living  man ! 


Never  was  man  more  skilful  than  0*Connell  in  so 
measuring  his  language  as  to  convey  the  most  inflam- 
matory impression  in  still  peaceable  words.  Never  did 
any  man  so  hold  a  whole  country  in  check  upon  the 
very  verge  of  civil  war  without  suffering  it  to  break  the 
peace.  But,  elated  with  the  delirious  enthusiasm  of 
1843,  he  had  been  carried  too  far.  It  was  the  theory 
of  Davis  and  his  followers,  that,  if  necessary,  the  Irish 
ought  to  fight  for  their  freedom.  The  Irish  accepted 
the  theory;  they  were  eager  to  fight;  and  they  understood 
O'Connell's  words,  as  Peel  understood  them  to  mean, 
that  he  would,  when  the  time  came,  lead  them  to  battle, 
and  they  rejoiced  at  the  prospect  and  had  no  fear  of  its 
issue.     **  At  any  moment  that  Mr.  O'Connell  had  chosen 


THE  REPEAL  ASSOCIATION.  163 

during  that  year,"  writes  John  O'Connell,  **  and  indeed 
for  long  afterwards,  he  could  have  raised  them  in  insur- 
rection as  one  man  throughout  the  entire  country,  and 
however  bloody,  wasting  and  desolating  might  have 
been  the  struggle,  it  is  utterly  impossible  but  that  the 
result  would  have  been  a  violent  separation  from  Eng- 
land. There  was  a  spirit  abroad  among  the  people 
which  would  have  made  millions  among  them  prefer 
death  to  submission  again  to  England.'*  They  imagined 
they  could  drive  the  English  into  the  sea. 

It  is  hardly  conceivable  that  0*Connell  could  have 
hoped  for  any  such  issue  ;  it  is  difficult  to  see  how  he 
allowed  himself  to  encourage  such  a  temper  in  the 
people  of  Ireland.  If  he  meant  what  he  said  he  was 
preparing  for  rebellion ;  if  he  did  not,  he  was  playing 
with  fire,  and  risking  the  lives  and  liberties  of  his 
fellow-countrymen  for  a  little  idle  rhetoric.  The  truth 
probably  lies  between  the  two  suppositions.  It  acquits 
him  of  folly  if  not  of  guilt.  He  recollected  1828  and 
how  his  present  opponents,  Wellington  and  Peel,  had 
succumbed,  sorely  against  their  will,  to  the  peaceful 
menace  of  unanimous  agitation.  He  thought  the  same 
tactics  would  succeed  now.  He  could  not  believe  that 
Peel  meant  to  go  to  any  lengths  in  defence  of  the 
Union.  He  was  counting  on  the  surrender  of  the 
Government. 

But  he  had  sadly  mistaken  his  men.  Peel  had 
yielded  in  1829  because  the  House  of  Commons  was 
divided  and  because  the  best  of  the  English  were  in 
agreement  with  the  Irish.  With  a  united  House  of 
Commons  he  was  not  the  man  to  flinch.  Wellington 
had  yielded  because  in  face  of  imminent  civil  war  he 
was  told  the  troops  were  no  longer  to  be  trusted.  There 
were  no  Repeal  regiments  now,   and  if  the  Irish  must 

11  • 


164  LIFE  OF  DANIEL  O'GONNELL. 

come  to  blows  with  the  Empire  the  lesson  would  be 
short,  certain,  and  lasting. 

The  Government  quietly  took  their  measures.  They 
masked  each  meeting  with  dragoons,  but  did  not  inter- 
fere with  it.  The  Duke  had  poured  35,000  troops  into 
Ireland.  Barracks  had  been  fortified,  martello  towers 
put  in  repair,  forts  loopholed,  stores  accumulated. 
Ships  of  war  lay  in  the  rivers  ;  more  troops  were  in 
readiness  in  the  west  and  north  of  England.  If  there 
was  to  be  a  conflict  he  was  ready.  The  Kepealers  felt 
that  the  series  of  monster  meetings  must  be  brought  to 
an  end ;  their  novelty  was  wearing  off;  autumn  was  fast 
vanishing.  It  was  decided  to  conclude  them  with  one 
beside  which  the  others,  gigantic  as  they  were,  should 
sink  into  insignificance.  It  was  to  be  held  at  another 
of  the  historic  spots  of  Ireland,  at  Clontarf,  a  few  miles 
from  Dublin.  To  it  the  people  were  to  be  gathered  from 
every  part  of  Ireland  and  from  England  and  Scotland 
across  the  sea.  Nine-tenths  of  the  grown  men  of  Ireland 
were  Repealers ;  it  was  to  be  an  awe-inspiring  proof  of 
the  unanimity  of  the  Irish  race.  A  platform  was  set  up 
and  minute  directions  given  for  the  gathering  of  the 
host.  One  slip  they  made,  but  only  for  a  moment.  One 
of  the  secretaries,  Frank  Morgan,  a  solicitor,  issued  a 
placard  summoning  and  directing  what  he  called  the 
**  Repeal  Cavalry."  The  expression  was  not  very 
obnoxious,  but  it  was  indiscreet,  and  the  placard 
was  at  once  called  in.  The  Government  made  no 
sign,  and  it  was  thought  they  would  allow  this  last 
meeting  to  pass  as  they  had  tolerated  so  many  of  its 
predecessors. 

The  meeting  was  to  be  held  on  Sunday,  October  5th. 
Already  steamers  were  arriving  laden  with  the  Repealers 
of  Glasgow  and   Liverpool,    when    the    Duhlitr    Mail 


THE  REPEAL  ASSOCIATION,  166 

announced  on  the  Friday  that  the  meeting  would  be 
forbidden.  It  was  known  that  the  Irish  Privy  Council 
was  assembled  to  receive  a  despatch  from  England. 
Still  the  Government  uttered  not  a  word.  But  soon 
troops  began  to  be  moved  down  upon  Clontarf.  On  the 
following  day  the  guards  at  the  barracks  and  at  Dublin 
Castle  were  doubled.  The  guns  at  the  Pigeon  House  Fort 
and  the  batteries  of  the  ships  in  the  river  were  trained 
upon  the  place  of  meeting.  The  Rhadamanthus  and 
the  Dee  arrived  from  England  with  the  34th  Regiment 
of  Foot  and  the  87th  Royal  Irish  Fusiliers.  The  5th 
Dragoons,  each  man  equipped  for  active  service,  with  food 
for  twenty-four  hours,  moved  towards  evening  to  Clon- 
tarf. Close  by,  at  Conquest  Hill,  were  the  11th  Hussars 
and  the  54th  Foot,  and  a  brigade  of  the  Royal  Horse 
Artillery,  with  four  six-pounders.  The  60th  Rifles 
commanded  the  ground,  and  each  man  had  sixty  rounds 
of  ball  cartridge. 

From  an  early  hour  on  that  Saturday  the  Committee 
of  the  Association  had  been  in  session,  fitfully  transact- 
ing its  business,  and  expectant,  amid  the  news  of  these 
preparations,  of  some  word  from  the  Castle.  The  room 
grew  crowded.  At  last,  at  half-past  three  a  messenger 
burst  in  with  a  copy  of  the  proclamation  in  his  hand 
wet  from  the  press.  The  meeting  was  forbidden.  There 
was  no  time  for  deliberation.  Less  than  two  hours  of 
daylight  remained.  Already  the  people  were  beginning 
to  approach  Clontarf.  It  had  to  be  decided  on  the 
instant  whether  the  proclamation  should  be  obeyed  or 
defied.  The  habit  of  a  lifetime  determined  0*Connell 
to  obey.  But  it  was  not  enough  passively  to  yield ; 
the  people  must  bo  warned  in  time  and  time  was  scant. 
O'Connell  did  not  talk  ;  he  acted.  Peter  Martin  was 
sent  to  pull  down  the  platform^  which  had  been  erected 


166  LIFE  OF  DANIEL  O'GONNELL. 

at  Clontarf.  Twenty  or  thirty  gentleiiien  wete  de- 
spatched through  the  surrounding  country  in  pairs  to 
warn  the  gathering  crowds.  By  dawn  O'ConneH's  pro- 
clamation, commanding  obedience  to  the  proclamation, 
was  posted  in  every  village  within  twenty  miles  of 
Clontarf.  The  meeting  was  abandoned  ;  the  Government 
was  victorious.  If  the  meeting  was  legal,  as  0*Connell 
said  it  was,  the  Government  had  **  invaded  '*  the  Irish 
and  O'Connell  had  **  shrunk  from  the  contest.*'  In  the 
sight  of  the  whole  people  of  Ireland,  he  had  flinched 
from  his  word. 


167 


CHAPTER  IX. 

LAST    DAYS. 
1848-1847. 

The  trial  -  -The  judgment  of  the  House  of  Lords — The  Federal  contro- 
versy— The  conflict  with  Young  Ireland — Alliance  with  the 
Whigs — The  Famine — Last  days  and  death. 

Unconditional  submission  to  the  proclamation  of  the 
Government  was  undoubtedly  the  only  course  open  to 
O'Connell,  whether  as  a  man  of  sense,  a  humane  Irish- 
man, or  a  loyal  subject  of  the  Queen,  but  for  the  time 
being  it  was  a  severe  blow  to  his  hopes,  his  self-esteem, 
and  his  prestige.  Nothing  less  than  the  devotion  of  the 
Irish  to  their  trusted  leader  could  have  kept  them 
faithful  to  him,  so  bitter  was  their  disappointment.  He 
had  conducted  agitations  for  a  generation  past  against 
governments  of  every  temper  and  description.  He  had 
baffled  the  law  officers  of  the  Crown,  laughed  at  statute 
after  statute,  defied  the  Executive  again  and  ngain,  with 
consummate  dexterity.  He  had  said,  and  ho  still  main- 
tained, that  the  Clontarf  meeting  was  perfectly  legal ; 
he  had  announced  that  he  would  resist  by  force  any  in- 
vasion by  the  Government  of  the  people's  legal  rights, 
and  after  all  his  defiances,  he  had  turned  his  cheek  to 
the  sraiter.     Between  the  leaders  of  the  Young  Ireland 


168  LIFE  OF  DANIEL  O'CONNELL, 

party  and  O'Connell's  henchmen  for  long  no  love  had 
been  lost.  The  young  men  now  began  to  think  that 
their  chief  was  superannuated,  and  that  his  hand  had 
lost  its  cunning. 

Still  the  matter  was  far  from  being  hopeless.  In  the 
summer  O'Connell  had  formulated  a  plan  for  an  as- 
sembly, which  was  to  be  the  germ  of  an  Irish  House  of 
Commons.  He  argued,  somewhat  pedantically  it  is 
true,  that,  as  Parliaments  were  originally  summoned  by 
the  writ  of  the  Sovereign,  it  needed  now  no  statute  to 
create  an  Irish  Parliament.  A  little  wax  and  parch- 
ment, a  royal  summons  to  counties  and  boroughs  to 
send  persons  to  advise  the  Crown,  would  suffice.  He 
proposed  to  collect  such  a  body  of  advisers  before- 
hand ;  to  bring  together  in  Dublin  an  amateur  House  of 
Commons,  as  he  had  established  throughout  the  country 
a  volunteer  judiciary.  The  Kepealers  of  each  locality 
were  to  subscribe  £100,  and  to  select  someone  in  whom 
they  had  confidence,  not  to  represent  them,  since  that 
would  have  infringed  Lord  Clare's  Convention  Act,  but 
to  be  the  bearer  of  the  £100  to  Dublin.  These  agents 
for  the  transmission  of  money,  finding  themselves  for- 
tuitously in  Dublin,  were  to  meet,  to  debate,  to  resolve, 
to  comport  themselves  like  the  delegates  that  they  were 
and  the  members  of  a  House  of  Commons  that  they 
hoped  to  be.  Their  number  was  to  be  300;  it  was  a 
number  instinct  with  the  recollections  of  independent 
Ireland,  the  number  of  Charlemont's  assembly,  the 
number  of  Grattan's  Parliament,  the  number  of  the 
Dungannon  Convention.  Here  was  a  plan  still  remain- 
ing to  be  tried. 

There  was  this,  too,  to  encourage  the  Repealers.  The 
Irish  Whigs  had  hitherto  stood  aloof  from  their  move- 
ment.    They  were  fully  alive  to  the  grievances,  which 


LAST  DAYS.  169 

Temained  unredressed  ;  they  were  no  longer  sanguine 
that  they  ever  would  be  remedied  under  existing  consti- 
tutional arrangements.  But  their  leaders  were  men  of 
high  rank  and  ancient  family,  such  as  the  Duke  of 
Leinster  and  the  Earl  of  Meath.  They  could  not  consent 
iio  throw  in  their  lot  with  O'Connell  and  Barrett  and 
Steele,  or  to  support  Repeal  pure  and  simple.  But  the 
Federal  idea  was  gaining  ground  among  them  and 
Federalists  were  always  possible  Repeal  recruits.  Shar- 
man  Crawford  had  put  forward  a  scheme  for  a  subor- 
dinate Irish  assembly  to  manage  Irish  affairs,  and  an 
Imperial  legislature  for  Imperial  affairs.  Ross,  member 
for  Belfast,  and  Oaulfield,  a  son  of  the  Lord  Charle- 
mont  who  was  a  leader  of  the  Volunteers  in  1782,  were 
of  the  same  opinion.  Smith  O'Brien,  than  whom  no  Irish 
member  was  more  esteemed  for  his  family  or  for  his 
integrity,  had  moved  in  July  that  the  House  of  Com- 
mons should  go  into  committee  to  consider  the  state  of 
Ireland.  An  excellent  case  had  been  made  out  for  Irish 
reforms.  The  Whigs  had  supported  him  ;  the  debate 
had  been  carried  on  for  five  nights ;  and  the  rejection 
•of  the  motion  brought  the  Whigs  so  much  the  nearer  to 
Repeal. 

Everyone  was  anxious  to  hear  what  O'ConneH's  next 
step  would  be.  The  next  Association  meeting  was  at- 
tended by  a  dense  crowd.  He  spoke  long,  but  to  little 
purpose.  Nothing  was  made  of  the  Convention  scheme  ; 
nothing  of  the  Whig  accession.  He  proposed  to  hold 
simultaneous  meetings  in  every  parish,  as  had  been  done 
in  1828 ;  the  Government  could  not  break  up  a  thou- 
sand meetings  in  a  day.  He  had  also  a  vague  scheme 
for  a  joint  stock  compiiny,  which  was  to  benefit  Ireland 
in  some  unexplained  way  by  jobbing  in  Irish  mortgages. 
The  disappointment  of  the  Repealers  was  intense  ;  their 


170  LIFE  OF  DANIEL  O'CONNELL. 

leader  had  lost  his  nerve.     Their  enemies  were  openly 
exultant,  and  the  Government  struck  another  blow. 

On  October  the  14th  O'Connell,  his  son  John,  Ray^ 
Secretary  of  the  Association,  Steele,  its  Head  Paci- 
ficator, Barrett,  editor  of  the  Pilot,  Gray,  editor  of  the 
Freeman  s  Journal,  and  Gavan  DuflPy,  editor  of  the- 
Nation,  were  called  upon  to  give  bail  to  answer  infor- 
mations, which  had  been  sworn  against  them,  for  a  con- 
spiracy to  raise  sedition  and  to  excite  disaffection  in 
the  army.  The  indictment  was  sent  up  before  the 
Grand  Jury  on  November  2nd ;  they  deliberated  for 
six  days  and  found  true  bills  on  the  8th.  The  indict- 
ment was  an  instrument  of  portentous  size  and  impene- 
trable obscurity.  It  set  out  at  full  length  resolutions, 
speeches,  and  newspaper  articles.  It  was  one  hundred 
yards  in  length  ;  it  occupies  fifty-five  close-printed  folio 
pages  in  the  Appendix  to  the  Traversers^  case  in  the 
House  of  Lords.  There  were  eleven  separate  counts;; 
forty-three  overt  acts  were  alleged ;  and  all  the  tra- 
versers were  charged  with  conspiring  together  to  com- 
mit each  act,  and  with  a  general  conspiracy  to  commit 
general  seditious  acts.  It  was  a  masterpiece  of  intricate- 
alternative  pleading.  It  is  too  much  to  say  that  it  waa 
intelligible. 

A  vast  array  of  counsel  was  retained  on  either  side. 
The  Crown  had  a  dozen  barristers  to  represent  it — 
the  Attorney-General,  T.  B.  0.  Smith,  afterwards 
Master  of  the  Bolls,  the  Solicitor-General,  R.  Wil- 
son Greene,  afterwards  a  Baron  of  the  Exchequer,. 
Brewster  and  Napier,  both  subsequently  Lord  Chan- 
cellors and  others.  The  traversers  had  an  equally  bril- 
liant array — Sheil,  Pigot,  afterwards  Chief  Baron, 
Monahan,  afterwards  Chief  Justice  of  the  Common^ 
Pleas,  Whiteside,  afterwards  Chief  Justice  of  the  Queen's. 


LAST  BAYS.  171 

Bench,  O'Hagan,  subsequently  Lor(f  Chancellor, 
O'Loghlen,  subsequently  Judge  -  Advocate  -  General. 
From  the  first  the  Irish  Repealers  made  up  their  minds 
that  the  accused  would  not  have  a  fair  trial,  and  their 
newspapers  encouraged  the  belief.  Unfortunately  the 
unscrupulous  zeal  of  the  minor  officials  of  the  Crown 
converted  their  prejudiced  apprehension  into  a  lament- 
able truth,  and  it  must  be  owned  that  the  counsel  for 
the  Crown  availed  themselves  of  every  technical  objec- 
tion with  illiberal  pedantry. 

The  trial  was  to  take  place  at  bar,  but  it  could  not 
well  be  held  until  the  jury  panel  had  been  revised. 
Shaw,  the  Recorder  of  Dublin,  member  for  Dublin 
University  and  a  Privy-Councillor,  was  the  officer  before 
whom  the  list  was  revised.  He  had  made  frequent  and 
strong  complaints  of  the  incompleteness  and  inadequacy 
of  the  list  of  persons  qualified  to  serve  as  jurors.  The 
revision  was  now  at  hand.  The  special  jury  panel  ought 
to  have  contained  all  peers  and  eldest  sons  of  peers,  all 
esquires  and  all  merchants,  whose  property  was  worth 
£5fiOO.  The  existing  panel  showed  but  388  special 
jurors'  names,  an  obviously  insufficient  number,  and  of 
these,  70  were  dead  or  disqualified.  At  least  300  Catho- 
lics must  have  been  entitled  to  have  their  names  on 
the  list ;  there  were  but  23.  The  returns  of  the  col- 
lectors of  Grand  Jury  cess  showed  over  11,000  housen 
in  Dublin  rated  at  the  amount  which  qualified  for  the 
common  jury  list.  Presumably  there  ought  to  have 
been  a  common  jury  list  of  at  least  9,000  names.  The 
existing  list  contained  but  5,000,  and  was  besides 
scandalously  incoinplctr  in  other  respects.  These  facts 
were  notorious.  From  suoli  a  jurors*  book  in  such  a  case 
a  panel  could  not  bo  struck.  The  trial  was  postponed 
till  January  15th,  1844. 


172  LIFE  OF  DANIEL  O'CONNELL. 

The  revision  took  place.  The  Recorder  enlarged  the 
list  of  special  jurors  from  388  to  717.  On  January  4th 
the  parties  attended  before  the  Clerk  of  the  Crown  to 
strike  a  jury.  It  was  pointed  out  on  behalf  of  the  tra- 
versers that  the  names  of  60  persons,  wealthy  and  re- 
spectable men,  which  had  been  entered  by  the  Recorder 
in  the  list  of  special  jurors,  had  been  somehow  omitted 
from  the  list,  from  which  it  was  now  proposed  to  strike 
the  panel.  The  Clerk  of  the  Crown  decided  that  he  had 
come  there  not  to  argue  but  to  strike  a  panel  and  a  panel 
should  be  struck.  The  ballot  produced  the  names  of 
forty  persons ;  eleven  were  Roman  Catholics.  One  by 
one  Kemmis,  the  solicitor  for  the  Crown,  struck  them 
off.  The  jury  finally  consisted  of  twelve  Protestant 
tradesmen,  of  whom  one  was  an  Englishman.  The  Court 
consisted  of  Chief  Justice  Pennefather  and  three  puisne 
judges.  Burton,  Crampton  and  Perrin.  All  were  Pro- 
testants, two  were  Tories,  one  was  an  Englishman. 

The  15th  came.  Business  in  Dublin  was  suspended. 
Huge  crowds  thronged  the  Four  Courts.  O'Connell 
arrived  at  the  Court  in  semi-royal  state,  riding  in  the 
Lord  Mayor^s  coach  and  attended  by  the  Dublin  alder- 
men in  their  robes.  He  took  his  seat  in  Court  in  wig 
and  gown.  The  judges  entered,  the  jurors  were  called. 
When  the  first  person  called  came  to  the  book  to  be 
sworn,  counsel  for  the  traversers  interposed  with  a  chal- 
lenge to  the  array  and  pointed  to  the  omission  of  the 
sixty  names.  The  Attorney-General  put  in  a  demurrer; 
he  admitted  the  fact,  and  argued  that  it  was  immaterial 
in  law.  The  Court  sustained  the  demurrer.  On  the 
17th  the  jury  were  sworn,  and  the  case  proceeded  at  a 
length  worthy  of  the  indictment.  The  Attorney-General 
occupied  two  days  in  opening  his  case  ;  the  evidence 
for  the  Crown  occupied  seven  days ;    the  speeches  for 


LAST  DAYS.  17a 

the  traversers  ten  ;  the  reply  of  the  Solicitor-General 
three.  O'Connell  was  the  last  of  the  traversers  to  speak 
and  his  speech  was  a  failure;  it  was  feeble  and  ineffec- 
tive. Late  on  the  afternoon  of  the  twenty-third  day  the 
jury  retired.  It  was  a  Saturday,  and  the  hours  wore  on 
into  the  night ;  but  no  one  left  the  Court  while  the- 
jury  were  out.  Shortly  before  twelve  they  returned. 
They  were  agreed  as  to  the  substance  of  their  verdict,, 
but  had  a  natural  difficulty  in  adjusting  it  to  the  case 
of  nine  traversers,  eleven  counts,  and  forty-three  overt 
acts.  Before  this  nice  matter  could  be  set  right  mid- 
night arrived.  All  was  in  doubt.  The  Attorney- 
General  was  of  opinion  the  jury  must  undergo  further 
incarceration  and  give  their  verdict  on  Monday;  he 
doubted  if  the  verdict  could  be  taken  in  the  small  hours 
of  Sunday  morning.  The  judge  directed  that  the  jury 
should  remain  together  till  Monday  and  proposed  to 
adjourn.  Another  learned  gentleman  doubted  if  the 
Court  could  now  adjourn ;  it  would  be  the  performance 
of  a  judicial  act  on  Sunday,  a  dies  non.  The  judge  had 
had  doubts  of  his  power  to  take  the  verdict  and  let  the 
wretched  jurymen  go  to  their  homes;  he  had  none  of 
his  power  to  adjourn  and  go  to  his  own.  The  Court 
rose. 

But  practically  the  verdict  was  known.  The  Govern- 
ment had  a  steamer  in  readiness  at  Kingstown  ;  it  sped 
away  with  the  news  at  once,  and  the  Times  had  the  ver- 
diot  printed  in  London  at  the  time  it  was  being  formally 
delivered  in  Dublin.  O'Connell,  Barrett,  and  Duffy  were 
found  guilty  on  the  whole  of  the  first  three  counts,  except 
as  to  the  charge  of  acting  **  maliciously  and  seditiously  "; 
on  the  other  counts  there  was  a  general  verdict  of  guilty 
ugaiust  all.  Sentence  was  deferred  until  the  following 
term.     Parliament  was  then  in  session.    O'Connell  onlr 


174  LIFE  OF.  DANIEL  O'GONNELL. 

waited  for  a  meeting  of  the  General  Committee  before 
setting  out  for  London.  But  at  that  meeting  he  startled 
his  followers  by  the  tone  which  he  adopted  ;  in  truth,  the 
verdict  and  the  certain  prospect  of  imprisonment  might 
well  quench  the  spirit  of  a  man  on  the  verge  of  his 
seventieth  year.  He  urged  a  complete  submission ;  he 
proposed  to  abandon  the  Arbitration  Courts,  and  he 
recommended  the  dissolution  of  the  Association  and  its 
reconstitution  in  some  other  and  less  obnoxious  form. 
The  young  and  fighting  wing  were  up  in  arms.  They 
had  with  difficulty  acquiesced  in  the  policy  of  abandoning 
the  Clontarf  meeting;  now  they  threatened,  rather 
than  acquiesce  in  the  dissolution  of  the  Association,  to 
split  the  party.  Smith  O'Brien,  who  had  now  become  an 
avowed  Repealer  and  a  member  of  the  Association,  was 
of  the  same  opinion.  At  last  a  compromise  was  arrived 
at.  In  the  late  trial  the  articles  in  newspapers,  though 
unauthorised  by  and  unconnected  with  many  of  the 
traversers,  had  formed  the  most  serious  evidence  against 
them.  For  the  security  of  the  Association  all  the  edi- 
tors of  newspapers  resigned  their  membership.  Notice 
was  sent  to  the  Arbitration  Courts  that  they  must  no 
longer  have  any  connection  with  the  Association. 
Severed  from  the  parent  stem  they  speedily  perished. 

O'Connell  crossed  to  England,  and  was  enthusiasti- 
cally received  by  the  Liberals.  He  addressed  largo 
meetings  at  Liverpool,  at  Manchester,  at  Coventry,  at 
Birmingham.  A  great  banquet  was  given  in  his  honour 
at  Coven t  Garden  theatre.  He  entered  the  House  of 
Commons  during  an  Irish  debate,  and  was  hailed  with 
enthusiastic  cheers.  In  Parliament  strong  opinions 
were  expressed  against  the  course  of  the  trial  by  Sir 
Thomas  Wilde  and  other  eminent  lawyers.  But  in  spite 
of  it  all    two   adverse    and  significant  facts  appeared. 


LAST  DAYS,  175 

The  Radicals  were  eager  for  Reform  ;  they  were  hostile 
to  Repeal.  The  official  Whigs  held  themselves  aloof 
altogether. 

The  day  of  sentence  at  length  arrived.  Efforts  had 
been  made  to  disturb  the  verdict.  A  motion  was  made 
at  the  beginning  of  term  for  a  new  trial  on  the  ground 
of  misdirection,  but  it  was  refused.  On  May  30th 
the  traversers  were  called  up.  As  he  entered  the 
Court,  O'Connell  was  received  with  vociferous  ap- 
plause. The  traversers  were  called  upon,  and 
Mr.  Justice  Burton  pronounced  the  sentence  of  the 
Court.  He  and  O'Connell  had  been  old  friends  and 
companions  on  the  Munster  circuit  and  old  rivals  at 
the  bar.  As  his  judgment  proceeded,  he  was  painfully 
affected  and  even  wept.  The  sentence  upon  O'Connell 
was  imprisonment  for  twelve  months,  a  fine  of  £2,000, 
and  security  in  dS5,000,  his  own  and  another's,  for  his 
good  behaviour  during  seven  years.  The  other  traver- 
sers were  sentenced  to  nine  months'  imprisonment  and 
£50  fines.  When  sentence  had  been  delivered,  O'Con- 
nell rose,  and  briefly  said  that  justice  had  not  been 
done  him.  His  words  were  caught  up  with  cheers  for 
Repeal  by  the  audience  in  Court,  which  were  repeated  by 
the  crowd  outside.  The  prisoners  were  then  removed, 
escorted  by  a  silent  multitude,  to  Richmond  Gaol. 

In  the  matter  of  their  imprisonment  they  were  treated 
with  the  utmost  leniency.  It  had  been  privately  com- 
municated to  them,  that  they  would  be  permitted  to 
choose  the  place  of  their  confinement.  Fitzpatrick  had 
occupied  himself  with  inquiries  about  the  gaols  of  Ire- 
land, and  had  ascertained  that  Richmond  Prison  was  a 
commodious  and  convenient  gaol.  It  had  the  great 
recommendation  of  being  under  the  control  of  the  Cor- 
poration of  Dublin,  who  oould  be  oouoted  on  even  to 


176  LIFE  OF  DANIEL  O'CONNELL. 

strain  the  law  in  order  to  treat  them  as  honoured 
guests,  not  as  condemned  criminals. 

The  prisoners  were  delivered  into  the  custody  of  the 
governor  of  the  gaol,  and  their  names  and  descriptions 
entered  in  the  usual  way  in  the  prison  register,  where 
they  may  still  be  seen.  The  Board  of  Superintendence 
was  holding  a  meeting  in  the  prison,  and  sent  for 
0*Connell.  As  he  entered  all  rose  to  receive  him. 
He  was  informed  that  every  possible  concession  would 
be  made  to  the  comfort  of  the  prisoners,  if  they  would 
give  their  parole  not  to  misuse  the  indulgence  by  turn- 
ing it  into  a  means  of  escape.  The  pledge  was  given  ;  the 
officials  were  permitted  to  let  their  private  houses  to  the 
prisoners ;  the  garden  of  the  gaol  was  placed  at  their 
disposal.  They  were  catered  for  from  outside,  they  re- 
ceived their  letters  and  visitors,  and  entertained  guests 
as  if  they  were  in  their  own  homes.  The  only  persons 
who  were  refused  admittance  were  the  mayors  of  Cork, 
Waterford,  Limerick,  Kilkenny,  and  CJonmel,  who  came 
in  state  with  their  aldermen  and  town  councillors  to 
present  addresses  to  O'Connell.  The  Roman  Catholic 
bishops  undertook  in  terms  the  duty  of  saying  a  daily 
mass  for  O'ConnelFs  benefit,  and  eagerly  competed  with 
one  another  for  the  honour.  Visitors  to  the  gaol  found 
him  walking  placidly  in  the  garden  with  his  grandchil- 
dren about  him  playing  among  the  flowers,  and  his 
fellow-prisoners  engaged  in  various  pastimes,  in  con- 
ducting a  gaol  journal,  the  Prison  Gazette,  which 
chronicled  meetings  held  at  the  hillocks  in  the  garden, 
which  they  nicknamed  the  Hill  of  Tara,  and  the  Rath  of 
Mullaghmasts,  or  in  the  more  serious  business  of  advis- 
ing those  who  remained  at  liberty  and  were  carrying 
on  the  work  of  the  Association. 

Meantime,  proceedings  had  been  taken  for  bringing 


LAST  DATS,  177 

the  trial  on  appeal  to  the  House  of  Lords  by  writ  of 
error.  O'Connell  to  the  very  last  had  little  expectation 
that  this  forlorn  hope  could  succeed.  His  attention  was 
concentrated  on  the  proceedings  of  the  Association, 
which  were  being  carried  on  under  the  leadership  of 
Smith  O'Brien,  and  upon  the  conduct  of  the  people  at 
large. 

The  people  [he  said]  are  behaving  nobly.  I  was  at  first  a  little 
afraid,  despite  all  my  teaching,  that  at  such  a  crisis  they  would  have 
done  either  too  much  or  too  little  ;  either  have  been  stung  into  an 
outbreak,  or  else  awed  into  apathy.  Neither  has  happened.  Blessed 
be  God  I  the  people  are  acting  nobly.  What  it  is  to  have  such  a 
people  to  lead !  In  the  days  of  the  Catholic  Association  I  used  to 
have  more  trouble  than  I  can  express  in  keeping  down  mutiny.  I 
always  arrived  in  town  about  October  26th,  and  on  my  arrival  I  in- 
variably found  some  jealousies,  some  squabbles,  some  fellow  trying  to 
be  leader,  which  gave  me  infinite  annoyance.  But  now  all  goes  right ; 
no  man  is  jealous  of  any  other  man  ;  each  does  his  best  for  the  gene- 
ral cause. 

The  English  lawyers,  however,  who  had  now  been  en- 
gaged for  the  prisoners,  knew  better  than  O'Connell 
that  any  points  of  law  that  could  be  raised  would  be 
fairly  heard  by  the  House  of  Lords.  They  assigned 
error  on  no  less  than  thirty-four  grounds.  There  was 
error  in  the  composition  of  the  jury,  error  in  the  inex- 
tricable intricacies  of  the  indictment,  error  in  the  ver- 
dict, and  error  in  the  judgment.  The  jury  was  unlaw- 
fully chosen  ;  the  indictment  in  some  oases  said  too  little, 
for  it  did  not  name  the  persons  whom  it  was  alleged  the 
prisoners  had  conspired  to  intimidate ;  and  in  others  it 
said  too  much,  for  it  charged  the  same  and  only  con- 
spiracy over  and  over  again  ;  the  verdict,  which  found 
them  guilty  of  conspiracy,  was  so  framed  as  to  acquit 
them  on  its  face  of  having  conspired  in  common,  which 
was  essential  to  the  existence  of  the  offence;  the  judg- 

12 


178  LIFE  OF  DANIEL  O'CONNELL, 

ment  ingeniously  sentenced  each  to  imprisonment  until 
all  had  paid  up  the  amount  of  their  fines. 

If  the  original  indictment  was  formidable,  the  indict- 
ment against  it  on  appeal  was  no  less  so.  According 
to  custom,  the  House  of  Lords  stated  questions  for  the 
opinion  of  the  judges,  and  Tindal,  Chief  Justice  of  the 
Common  Pleas,  attended  to  read  their  opinion  to  the 
House.  The  judges  differed  in  opinion,  but  a  majority 
were  against  the  appeal,  and  in  particular,  with  little 
hesitation,  they  held  that  the  defect  in  the  jury  panel, 
since  partiality  was  not  alleged  against  the  sheriff,  did 
not  invalidate  the  subsequent  proceedings.  The  House 
gave  judgment  upon  September  4th.  Five  law  lords 
had  heard  the  case,  Lyndhurst,  the  Chancellor, 
Brougham  and  Cottenham,  ex-Chancellors,  Campbell, 
ex-Chancellor  of  Ireland,  and  Denman,  Lord  Chief 
Justice.  The  judgments  of  the  first  four  had  been  accu- 
rately forecast;  they  were  evenly  divided.  Denman, 
indignant  at  the  incompleteness  of  the  jury  panel, 
turned  the  scale  in  favour  of  quashing  the  whole  pro- 
ceedings. If  the  omission  of  sixty  names  was  imma- 
terial, he  said,  why  should  not  the  sheriff  have  been  at 
liberty  to  add  sixty  names  ?  The  persons  who  had 
tried  O'Connell  were  not  truly  jurors  at  all.  If  sheriffs 
were  to  do  their  duty  thus,  then  trial  by  jury  was  '^  a 
mockery,  a  delusion,  and  a  snare."  Upon  the  judg- 
ments of  the  law  lords  the  proceedings  were  to  be 
quashed.  In  strict  law  any  member  of  the  House  of 
Lords  was  entitled  to  vote  upon  the  question,  for  for- 
mally the  judgments  in  the  House  of  Lords  are  speeches 
in  support  of  or  against  a  motion.  Some  lay  peers, 
alarmed  at  the  prospect  of  O'Connell's  release,  proposed 
to  vote  and  carry  Lyndhurst's  motion  against  their 
enemy.     Then  Lord  Wharncliffe  rose,  deputed  by  the 


LAST  DAYS.  179 

Government,  and  with  grave  dignity  appealed  to  them 
not  to  violate  the  now  well-established  custom  of  the 
House,  which  was  to  leave  the  decision  upon  questions 
•of  legal  process  to  the  peers  who  were  learned  in  the 
law.  The  peers  bowed  to  his  appeal  to  their  sense  of 
fairness;  they  overcame  their  prejudices  and  withdrew, 
and  their  enemy  went  free. 

Away  posted  Ford,  O'Conneirs  solicitor,  to  Holy^ 
head  with  the  news  in  his  pocket.  A  steamer,  the 
Medusa^  was  in  waiting  to  carry  him  to  Dublin.  Eagerly 
expecting  the  issue,  were  it  good  or  evil,  thousands 
<5rowded  the  Kingstown  pier  on  her  arrival.  In 
an  instant  all  was  rejoicing.  The  engine  that  brought 
the  messenger  up  to  Dublin  was  decorated  with  a  flag, 
■*'  O'Connell  is  free,'*  to  spread  the  news  by  the  way- 
side. Away  rushed  Ford  to  Richmond  and  dashed 
into  O'ConnelFs  dining-room  with  tears  and  ejacula- 
tions. **Fitzpatrick,"  said  O'Connell,  reverently,  "the 
hand  of  man  is  not  in  this.  It  is  the  response  given  by 
Providence  to  the  prayers  of  the  faithful,  steadfast  people 
of  Ireland."  That  night  he  left  the  prison  and  walked 
home  to  Merrion  Square ;  as  they  met  him  in  the  streets 
the  people  stared  at  him  as  if  he  had  risen  from  the  dead. 
But  no  quiet  home-coming  could  satisfy  his  admirers. 
From  end  to  end  of  Ireland  the  news  had  been  expected, 
and  bonfires  telegraphed  from  hill  to  hill,  that  the  news 
was  good.  Next  day  the  prisoners  returned  to  gaol  to 
be  formally  escorted  home  by  a  vast  processioQ.  O'Con* 
nell,  mounted  upon  a  grotesque  triumphal  chariot,  with 
a  harper  in  ancient  Irish  garb  harping  patriotic  tunes 
before  him,  and  all  the  trades  of  Dublin  marching  before 
and  behind,  was  drawn  amid  thunders  of  applause 
through  the  streets  to  his  home. 

But  although  few  at  first  believed  it,  in  those  few 

12  ♦ 


180  LIFE  OF  DANIEL  O'GONNELL, 

months  of  his  imprisonment  the  whole  scene  changed. 
The  eyes  of  all  Europe  had  heen  fixed  upon  the  trial,, 
and  the  trial  had  heen  represented  as  the  struggle  of  in- 
nocence against  a  legal  system  and  a  hench  of  judges, 
which  were  nothing  hut  tools  in  the  firm  grip  of  the 
English  Government,  and  now  in  the  sight  of  all  the 
world  the  highest  English  tribunal  had  shown  its  inde- 
pendence of  the  Government,  by  giving  a  just  judgment 
upon  a  passionless  point  of  law.  It  was  a  signal  proof 
to  the  Irish  people  that  English  justice  was  justice  in* 
deed.  The  sympathy  of  the  spectators  was  changed ; 
but  the  actors  were  changing  too.  While  O'Connell 
was  in  prison  the  forward  party  had  obtained  a  greater 
control  over  the  machinery  of  the  Association,  and  had 
become  more  confirmed  in  the  belief  that  the  struggle 
must,  if  necessary,  be  decided  by  an  appeal  to  the  sword  ; 
and  unhappily,  while  these  ardent  spirits  were  becom- 
ing more  and  more  fiery,  O'Conneirs  power  of  con- 
trolling them  was  fast  diminishing.  •  While  he  lay  in 
gaol,  he  was  attacked,  secretly  but  certainly,  by  that 
disease  of  which  less  than  three  years  later  he  died. 

The  Federal  idea  had  been  steadily  gaining  force 
among  the  Protestant  gentry  of  Ireland  and  the  English 
Whigs,  until  it  became  elevated  almost  into  an  avowed 
object  of  their  policy.  Nassau  Senior  had  propounded 
in  the  Edinburgh  Review  a  scheme  for  an  "itinerant 
Parliament."  Occasional  sessions  of  the  Imperial  Le» 
gislature  were  to  be  held  in  Dublin.  Lord  John  Hussell 
corrected  the  proof  sheets  of  the  article.  The  project  met 
with  some  favour.  Many  years  afterwards  it  was  al- 
leged, on  the  authority  of  one  who  afterwards  became  a 
Whig  Cabinet  Minister,  and  was  not  denied  by  Russell, 
that  the  Whig  leaders  actually  resolved  to  offer  O^Con- 
nell  "  an  alliance,  on  the  basis  of  conceding  to  Ireland 


LAST  DAYS.  181 

a  Parliament  administeriDg  Irish  affairs  under  a  system 
of  federal  union  with  Great  Britain."  Mr.  Hatohell 
was  sent  to  Dublin  to  sound  the  Irish  Repealers  upon 
the  subject.  Even  if  this  rumour  were,  as  it  probably 
was,  an  exaggeration,  it  was  clear  that  as  a  via  media 
[Federation  would  command  no  little  support.  O'Connell 
^as  disposed  to  forego  Repeal,  of  which  he  now  knew 
the  hope  to  be  so  shadowy,  for  the  solid  benefits,  which 
the  English  were  willing  to  bestow  as  soon  as  the 
.inertia  of  their  unfamiliarity  with  Ireland  was  over- 
come. Upon  his  release  from  prison  he  wrote  on 
October  14th  to  the  Repeal  Association  a  letter,  in 
which,  after  disclaiming  any  more  monster  meetings, 
and  keeping  silence  about  his  plan  for  a  Convention  in 
Dublin,  he  said  : — 

For  my  own  part  I  will  own  that  since  I  have  come  to  contemplate 
the  specific  differences,  such  as  they  are,  between  simple  Repeal  and 
Federation,  I  do  at  present  feel  a  preference  for  the  Federation  plan, 
us  tending  more  to  the  utility  of  Ireland  and  the  maintenance  of  the 
connection  with  England  than  the  proposal  of  simple  Repeal.  But  I 
must  either  deliberately  propose  or  deliberately  adopt  from  soma 
other  person  a  plan  of  Federative  Union,  before  I  bind  myself  to  the 
opinion  which  I  now  entertain.  .  .  .  The  Federalists  cannot  but  per- 
ceive that  there  has  been  on  my  part  a  pause  in  the  agitation  for 
Repeal  since  our  liberation  from  unjust  captivity. 

The  letter  fell  like  a  bomb  upon  the  party  which 
found  voice  in  the  Nation  ;  to  them  it  seemed,  that  to 
abandon  Repeal,  after  all  the  great  things  that  had  been 
said  of  it  for  years  past,  was  pusillanimous.  It  made 
Ireland  contemptible.  Duffy  issued  a  temperately  worded 
manifesto,  in  which  he  declared  that  a  voice  in  the 
Imperial  destiny  of  England  was  a  poor  compensation 
for  a  little  limitation  upon  the  Irish  claim  to  have  the 
sole  control  of  the  individual  destinies  of  Ireland ; 
nothing  could  satisfy  him  but  tlio  restoration  of  Ireland's 
ancient  and  historic  constitution.     Smith  O'Brien  was 


182  LIFE  OF  DANIEL  O'CONNELL. 

as  yet  mute.  O'Connell  wrote  to  him  on  the  21st  a 
letter,  in  which  he  dwelt  on  the  importance  of  their 
common  agreement  and  propounded  a  Federal  plan,  of 
which  he  said  : — 

While  all  matters  of  taxation,  commercial  and  ecclesiastical  policy, 
as  well  as  the  general  taxation  and  expenditure  of  the  United  King- 
dom, would  by  such  an  arrangement  remain,  as  now,  within  the 
exclusive  control  of  the  Imperial  Legislature,  such  matters  as  the 
regulation  and  disposition  of  local  taxation,  the  relief  of  the  poor  and 
the  development  of  the  natural  resources  of  the  country  would  be 
provided  for  by  the  local  assembly,  which  must  necessarily  be  better 
qualified  to  discharge  such  functions. 

We  utterly  disclaim  any  intention  of  rendering  the  proposed  mea- 
sures in  any  degree  subservient  to  the  severance  of  the  legislative 
connection  between  Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  which,  thus  reformed, 
we  shall  deem  it  our  duty,  as  we  believe  it  will  be  our  interest,  by 
every  means  in  our  power  to  maintain. 

But  it  speedily  became  apparent  that  except  among 
his  own  sycophants,  who  would  have  accepted  any 
policy  from  his  hands,  O'ConnelFs  suggestion  of  adopt- 
ing Federation  found  no  favour.  The  Protestants,  who 
followed  Sharman  Crawford,  personally  distrusted  him. 
The  English  Whigs,  unaware,  perhaps,  of  any  change 
of  opinion  among  their  leaders,  adhered  to  the  Whig  cry 
of  Keform  but  no  Repeal ;  the  Irish  Repealers,  one 
and  all,  denounced  any  concession.  O'Connellfelt  that 
the  reins  were  slipping  from  his  grasp.  It  was  not  thus 
that  in  the  heyday  of  his  powers  his  suggestions  were 
disputed ;  unfortunately,  too,  it  was  not  thus  that  he 
had  been  accustomed  to  crush  a  mutineer.  He  recanted. 
He  returned  to  Dublin  from  Darrynane  amid  the 
usual  signs  of  enthusiasm  and  popularity,  banquets,, 
addresses,  and  torchlight  processions.  He  attended  the 
Association  meeting  on  November  25th,  and  practically 
announced  that  his  Federalism  had  been  a  temporary 
ruse  adopted  to  attract  the  Federalists,  a  tub  to  catch/ 


LAST  DAYS,  183 

a  whale.  If  they  assented  they  would  have  been  drawn 
into  the  Repeal  circle ;  if  they  refused  they  would  have 
been  made  to  appear  opinionated  and  in  the  wrong. 

After  the  liberation  of  the  state  prisoners  [he  said]  advances  had 
been  made  to  him  by  men  of  large  influence  and  large  property,  who 
talked  of  seeking  Repeal  on  what  they  called  the  Federal  Plan.  He 
inquired  what  the  Federal  Plan  was,  but  nobody  could  tell  him.  He 
called  upon  them  to  propose  their  plan,  the  view  in  his  own  mind 
being  that  Federalism  could  not  commence  till  Ireland  had  a  parlia- 
ment of  her  own,  because  she  would  not  be  on  a  footing  with  England 
till  possessed  of  a  parliament  to  arrange  her  own  terms.  The  Fede- 
ralists were  bound  to  declare  their  plan,  and  he  had  conjectured  that 
there  was  something  advantageous  in  it,  but  he  did  not  go  any  further; 
he  expressly  said  he  would  not  bind  himself  to  any  plan.  .  .  .  He  had 
expected  the  assistance  of  the  Federalists,  and  opened  the  door  as 
wide  as  he  could  without  letting  out  Irish  liberty.  But  [said  he, 
snapping  his  fingers],  let  me  tell  you  a  secret ;  Federalism  is  not 
worth  that.  Federalists,  I  am  told,  are  still  talking  and  meeting.  .  .  . 
I  wish  them  well.  Let  them  work  as  well  as  they  can,  but  they  are 
none  of  my  children — I  have  nothing  to  do  with  them. 

In  truth,  O'Connell's  position  in  relation  to  Repeal 
never  had  been  the  same  as  that  of  the  more  advanced 
and  fanatical  of  his  party.  His  rooted  belief  was  that 
no  political  advantage  was  worth  having  at  the  cost  of 
shedding  one  drop  of  blood.  They  were  not  far  from 
thinking  that  Irish  liberties  were  not  worth  having 
until  they  had  been  baptized  with  English  blood  shed 
by  Irish  hands.  There  could  be  no  lasting  union  be- 
tween two  such  views.  O'Conneirs  practical  mind 
shrank  from  rejecting  present  boons  when  nothing 
better  could  be  got ;  he  knew  tlint  when  a  peaceful 
agitation  had  missed  fire,  as  the  Repeal  agitation  had,  to 
prolong  it  was  to  be  ridiculous  ;  for  criminal  he  would 
not  be,  and  prolonged  agitation  of  the  pattern  of  1843 
would  either  lead  him  to  the  crime  of  rebellion,  or 
would  fritter  itself  away.  He  was  looking  anxiously 
round  for  a  practicable  policy  and  a  practicable  goal. 


184  LIFE  OF  DANIEL  O'CONNELL, 

He  knew  his  countrymen  better  than  the  Young  Ire- 
land party  did,  and  saw  that  they  did  not  walk  in 
processions  and  pay  Kepeal  rents — the  rent,  which  had 
averaged  £500  a  week  during  the  trial,  had  risen  to 
£2,500  and  £3,000  a  week  during  the  imprisonment — for 
nothing.  They  looked  for  legislative  advantages,  and 
expected  to  feel  the  advantage  in  their  pockets.  A  boon 
such  as  that  must  be  obtained  peacefully  and  from  Eng- 
land. But  to  the  Young  Ireland  party  a  boon  from 
England  seemed  no  better  than  a  penny  tossed  to  a 
beggar,  and  they  detested  the  policy  which  accepted  it,» 
When  the  Repeal  party  was  thus  on  the  verge  of  break- 
ing up,  Peel  accelerated  the  process  by  offering 
remedial  legislation  to  Ireland.  His  mind  had  been 
much  impressed  with  the  debate  on  Smith  O'Brien's 
motion  in  1843.  There  had  been  another  long  debate 
on  the  causes  of  Irish  discontent  on  Russeirs  motion  in 
the  spring  of  1844.  The  Devon  Commission,  appointed 
in  1843,  conducted  an  exhaustive  inquiry  into  the  Irish 
land  question  in  1844,  and  reported  early  in  1845. 
Peel,  now  informed  upon  the  question,  braved  the 
fanaticism  of  some  of  his  party,  and  proposed 
substantial  reform.  The  Irish  were  to  be  educated. 
For  the  benefit  of  the  priests  the  Maynooth  grant  was 
almost  trebled,  and  was  made  permanent  and  placed 
beyond  the  reach  of  controversy  ;  for  the  laity  it  was 
proposed  to  establish  three  Queen's  Colleges  at  a  cost 
of  £100,000,  and  to  endow  them  with  £7,000  a  year, 
and  the  education  given  in  them  was  to  be  secular. 

O'Connell  was  in  some  difficulty  in  the  matter. 
Through  Mr.  Petre,  an  unaccredited  agent,  backed  by 
the  powerful  influence  of  the  agent  of  the  Austrian 
Monarchy,  the  Government  had  succeeded  in  obtaining 
from  the  See  of  Rome  a  letter  from  Cardinal  Fransoni, 


LAST  DAYS.  185 

Prefect  of  the  Propaganda,  to  Archbishop  Crolly,  depre- 
cating the  lively  part  which  Irish  priests  were  taking  in 
political  agitation.  Most  of  the  Irish  bishops  evaded 
the  monition  by  interpreting  it  as  a  warning  against 
excessive  zeal  on  the  part  of  their  clergy,  but  a  minority 
deferred  to  it  by  withdrawing  all  ecclesiastical  support 
from  the  agitation.  Now  the  Maynooth  grant  was 
likely  still  further  to  alienate  the  priests.  And  yet  it 
was  difficult  to  oppose  it. 

As  time  progressed,  however,  he  became  decidedly 
hostile  to  the  Government  plan  of  provincial  colleges. 
The  Bill  was  introduced  on  May  9th,  and  was  well  re- 
ceived by  the  House  of  Commons.  In  Ireland  some  of 
the  bishops,  the  Young  Ireland  party,  and  the  Protes- 
tants, also  welcomed  it.  In  the  General  Committee,  in 
spite  of  O'Connell's  opposition,  a  majority  was  favour- 
able to  it.  He  was  impatient  of  such  a  result.  Davis 
suggested  that  to  avoid  the  spectacle  of  open  divisions 
the  question  should  not  be  dealt  with  by  the  Asso- 
ciation at  all.  O'Connell  would  have  none  of  the 
-suggestion.  He  brought  it  before  a  full  meeting  in 
Conciliation  Hall.  Sir  Robert  Inglis,  member  for  the 
University  of  Oxford,  had  stigmatized  the  projected  col- 
leges as  *'  godless  colleges."  This  was  said  from  the 
extreme  Protestant  point  of  view.  O'Connell  thanked 
him  for  teaching  him  that  word,  and,  as  a  Gatholicy 
denounced  them  too  as  **  godless.*'  His  son  John, 
■a  poor-spirited  bigot,  who  aspired  to  be  his  sue* 
cessor,  and  already  possessed  a  great  influence  over 
his  father's  mind  and  the  proceedings  of  the  Asso- 
ciation, followed  in  the  same  tone.  O'Connell  proposed 
-Catholic  colleges  in  Cork  and  Galway.  and  a  Presbyterian 
college  in  Belfast.  To  the  Young  Ireland  men,  who 
<oared  for  nothing  except  as  a  means  to  Repeal,  and  for 


186  LIFE  OF  DANIEL  O'CONNFLL. 

that  end  were  ardently  working  for  a  union  of  Catholics- 
and  Protestants  in  one  party,  this  seemed  madness.  It 
had  been  bad  enough  when  O'Connell  treated  the  Fede- 
ralists with  discourtesy,  not  to  say  contempt.  To  see 
all  their  efforts  at  union  destroyed  by  this  rekindling  of 
religious  strife  was  more  than  they  could  bear.  They 
openly  dissented  from  their  leader  in  the  Association 
Hall.  At  a  subsequent  meeting,  what  had  been  merely 
the  cut  and  thrust  of  debate,  became  the  blows  and 
wounds  of  personality.  O'Connell  denounced  the  Bill 
as  **  execrable,"  and  prejudicial  to  **  faith  and  morals.'^ 
A  clever  bat  dissolute  free-lance  named  Conway  rose 
and  attacked  Davis  and  his  party,  declaring  that  their 
indifference  to  the  perilous  character  of  the  Bill  was 
only  part  of  their  general  indifference  to  religion.  Some 
of  them  were  Protestants;  in  an  assembly  consisting 
principally  of  ardent  Catholics  the  hit  told.  O^Connell 
so  far  forgot  himself  as  to  wave  his  cap  round  his  head 
in  unrestrained  applause.  Davis  denied  the  charge- 
O'Connell  came  into  collision  with  him,  and  used  words 
which,  whatever  Davis  might  do,  his  followers  could  not 
forgive  : — 

The  principle  of  the  Bill  [said  he]  has  been  lauded  bj"  Mr.  Davis, 
and  was  advocated  in  a  newspaper  professing  to  be  the  organi 
of  the  Roman  Catholic  people  of  this  country,  but  which  I  emphati- 
cally pronounce  to  be  no  such  thing.  The  section  of  politicians  styling 
themselves  the  Young  Ireland  party,  anxious  to  rule  the  destinies  of 
this  country,  start  up  and  support  this  measure.  There  is  no  such 
party  as  that  styled  Young  Ireland.  There  may  be  a  few  individuals 
who  take  that  denomination  on  themselves.  I  am  for  Old  Ireland. 
*Tis  time  that  this  delusion  should  be  put  an  end  to.  Young  Ireland 
may  play  what  pranks  they  please.  I  do  not  envy  them  the  namd- 
they  rejoice  in.  I  shall  stand  by  Old  Ireland,  and  I  have  some  slight 
notion  that  Old  Ireland  will  stand  by  me. 

The  deed  was  done.  Though  Davis  and  O'Connell 
became  reconciled  before  the  meeting  separated,   thera 


LAST  DAYS.  187 

could  after  this  be  no  peace  between  the  Young  Ireland 
and  the  Old. 

O'Connell  had  always  been  intolerant  of  any  opposi* 
tion  to  his  will  among  his  followers,  though  with  com- 
bined good  nature  and  good  sense  he  had  never  been 
jealous  of  expressions  of  mere  verbal  dissent.  The  feud 
between  him  and  TheO'Gorman  Mahon  arising  out  of  the 
Clare  election  of  1830  remained  open  for  several  years> 
and  about  1833  O'Connell  refused  him  admission  to  hia 
National  Trades  Union.  Galway,  one  of  the  Repeal 
members,  had  voted  with  the  Government  in  one  of  the 
divisions  upon  the  Coercion  Bill  of  1833.  At  the  earliest 
opportunity  he  was  drummed -out  of  the  party.  But 
now  O'Connell  had  far  more  cause  than  pique  or 
jealousy  to  turn  him  against  the  party  of  the 
Nation,  Davis  died,  and  they  began  to  get  somewhat 
out  of  hand.  Some  newspaper  had  pointed  out  the 
military  advantage,  in  case  of  a  rebellion,  of  the  pro-^ 
jected  system  of  Irish  railways ;  it  brought  all  Ireland 
within  a  few  hours  of  the  garrison  of  Dublin.  Mitchell 
replied  with  an  article  in  the  NalioHy  explaining  to  hypo- 
thetical iusurgcnts  the  best  modes  of  disabling  the  rail- 
ways. O'Connell  opeuly  disapproved  of  the  article. 
The  Government  prosecuted  Duffy,  the  editor  of  the 
Nation.  O'Connell  declined  to  say  anything  in  his 
defence. 

Soon  it  became  clear  that  the  old  agitation  for  Repeal 
was  abandoned  and  that  O'Connell  was  returning  to  the 
policy  of  supporting  the  Whigs,  whioh  he  had  pursued 
from  1835  to  1840.  During  the  autumn  of  1845  he 
had,  at  various  provincial  meetings,  pressed  for  the  for- 
mation of  a  Parliamentary  party.  He  called  for  the 
return  of  sixty-five  Repealers  at  the  next  General  Elec- 
tion.    In  particular   he   warned   Sheil    that   he   must 


188  LIFE  OF  DANIEL  O'CONNELL. 

accept  the  Kepeal  pledge  or  lose  his  seat.  In  December, 
during  the  crisis  when  Russell  attempted  and  failed  to 
form  a  Ministry  and  Peel  was  compelled  to  resume  the 
Government,  he  made  a  long  speech  in  the  Repeal  Asso- 
ciation, unmistakeably  offering  the  Whigs  the  support  of 
the  Repeal  party  in  return  for  a  very  moderate  programme 
of  Irish  reform.  In  May  1846  he  attended  a  meeting  of 
Lord  John  Russell's  followers  at  his  house  in  Chesham 
Place.  At  the  end  of  June  Peel  fell  and  O'Connell  entered 
into  an  alliance  with  the  new  Whig  Ministry.  Ministers 
with  Irish  seats  were  not  to  be  opposed ;  one  of  them 
was  Sheil,  who  sat  for  Dungarvan.  He  was  the  new 
Master  of  the  Mint.  The  patronage  of  Ireland  was  in 
return  to  be  at  O'Connell's  disposal  as  it  had  been  under 
Lord  Melbourne's  Administration.  This  brought  the 
conflict  with  the  Young  Ireland  party  to  a  head  at  once. 
O'Connell  had  ceased  to  be  willing  to  tolerate  them ; 
they  would  follow  the  banner  of  no  captain  of  Whig 
mercenaries.  By  tactics,  adroit  but  disingenuous, 
O'Connell  contrived  to  let  Shell's  election  pass  without 
opposition.  The  Young  Ireland  party  considered  this 
a  disgrace  to  the  cause  of  Repeal.  But  they  were  most 
anxious  not  to  abandon  the  Association.  John  O'Con- 
nell was  scheming  for  the  succession  to  his  father: 
Elijah's  mantle  was  to  fall  upon  him.  He  wished  to  be 
not  less  an  autocrat  than  his  father  was,  and  therefore 
he  was  anxious  to  expel  the  Young  Ireland  members, 
to  crush  the  Nation,  and  leave  himself  without  check 
or  rival.  They  were  equally  anxious  to  thwart  this 
plan.  O'Connell,  himself  sincerely  alarmed  at  the  tone, 
or  what  he  believed  to  be  the  tone,  of  the  Nation,  was 
now  worked  upon  by  his  son  to  take  steps  to  assert  his 
own  authority  and  to  drive  the  party  of  the  Nation  into 
secession.     He  proposed  the  adoption  by  the  Associa- 


LAST  DAYS.  18^ 

tion  of  a  report,  pledging  its  members  to  a  renunciation 
of  the  use  of  physical  force  in  the  agitation  under  any 
circumstances  whatever.  The  pledge  was  a  purely  gra- 
tuitous one.  As  an  abstract  theorem  of  politics,  it  was 
maintained  by  none  but  Quakers,  and  hardly  acted  on 
by  them.  O'Connell  himself  had  a  thousand  times 
over  used  language  in  flat  contradiction  of  it.  As  a 
motion  of  immediate  expediency,  it  was  unnecessary, 
because,  in  spite  of  Mitcheirs  article,  nobody  was  at 
present  advocating  the  employment  of  physical  force. 
But  it  was  a  stroke  of  very  great  ingenuity.  To  oppose 
it  for  its  own  sake  looked  seditious,  and,  coupled  with 
the  existing  charge  of  infidelity,  was  certain  to  alienate 
the  Roman  Catholic  clergy.  To  oppose  it  on  the 
ground  that  it  was  needless  and  irrelevant  was  to  expose 
its  opponents  to  the  charge  of  a  pedantic  or  vexatious 
hindrance  of  the  policy  of  the  Liberator.  Meagher,  a 
lad  of  fiery  eloquence,  whose  subsequent  speech 
upon  this  pledge  earned  him  the  title  of  Meagher 
**  of  the  sword/*  made  matters  worse  by  charging  one 
of  O'ConnelFs  henchmen  with  having  sought  and  obtained 
a  Government  place,  a  charge  all  the  more  unpalatable 
for  being  true.  The  adoption  of  the  pledge  was  cnrricd 
all  but  unanimously.  The  Young  Ireland  pnrty  did  not 
instantly  retire,  but  it  only  needed  a  little  discourteous 
interruption  and  hectoring  from  John  O'Connell  to 
drive  them  out.  The  Association  was  purged  of  its  for- 
ward party,  and  O'Connell  was  free  to  act  up  to  his 
parliamentary  alliance  with  the  Whigs.  But  the  seces- 
sion reduced  the  Association  to  impotence  and  O'Con- 
nell  did  not  live  to  serve  his  allies. 

While  these  dissensions  and  intrigues  were  proceeding 
in  Dublin  and  London,  Ireland  was  passing  through  the 
very  darkest  of  her  many  hours  of  suffering.     The  Irish 


190  LIFE  OF  DANIEL  O'CONNELL. 

people,  which  had  multiplied  beyond  the  normal  capa- 
city of  the  soil  to  support  it,  had  come  to  depend  for  its 
existence  upon  a  single  root.  The  potato  was  a  crop 
more  abundant,  more  easily  cultivated,  and  more  nutri- 
tious than  any  other.  But  it  is  unfortunately  liable 
to  the  attacks  of  a  disease,  which,  unforeseen  and 
beyond  the  reach  of  any  remedy,  destroys  the  entire 
<}rop  with  unexampled  rapidity.  In  October  1845  this 
disease  made  its  appearance  and  spread  slowly.  Soon 
the  people  of  Ireland  were  starving  by  thousands.  But 
Ireland's  adversity  was  England's  opportunity,  and  the 
helping  hand  of  public  and  private  charity  was  nobly 
held  out  for  her  succour.  It  was  hoped  that  the  crop 
of  1846  would  be  a  full  one  ;  instead  of  being  a  full  one 
it  perished  with  an  almost  instantaneous  blight.  In 
July  the  traveller  from  Cork  to  Dublin  found  the  crop 
all  around  him  luxuriant,  plenteous,  and  sound.  A 
week  later  he  returned  through  a  country  covered  with 
jTotting  vegetation  and  sickly  with  the  smell  of  decay. 
Where  thousands  had  wanted  the  autumn  before,  scores 
of  thousands  died  of  hunger  in  1846,  and  scores  of 
thousands  more  of  the  fever  and  pestilence  which  fol- 
lowed in  the  track  of  famine.  It  was  a  misery  that 
mocked  the  powerlessness  of  agitation.  O'Connell's 
tmind  was  distressed  by  the  dissensions  in  the  Associa- 
tion, by  the  rash  and  daring  projects  which  he  believed 
the  Young  Ireland  party  entertained,  by  the  disappoint- 
ment which  had  fallen  upon  the  rosy  hopes  of  1843. 
But  beside  the  famine  these  were  light  matters.  When 
he  went  in  the  autumn  to  Darrynane,  he  passed  through 
a  country  that  seemed  accursed;  where  he  had  been 
accustomed  to  see  crowds  of  rejoicing  and  triumphant 
supporters,  he  met  troops  of  haggard  and  wasted 
wretches,   whose  sufferings  were  beyond  human  help. 


LAST  DAYS.  191 

It  was  to  this  all  his  agitation  had  brought  him.  After 
fifty  years  of  effort  and  thirty  years  of  triumph,  he  felt 
that  he  was  passing  from  the  scene  with  nothing  but 
-distress  to  cloud  his  present,  and  no  cheering  hopes  of 
the  future  to  console  him.  He  was  going  down  to  his 
grave,  and  there 

Vestibultun  ante  ipsum  primisque  in  faucibus  Orci 
Luctus  et  ultrices  posuere  cubilia  Curae  : 
Pallentesque  habitant  Morbi  tristisque  Senectus 
Et  Metus  et  malesuada  Fames  ac  turpis  Egestas 
Terribiles  visu  formae. 

His  end,  indeed,  was  now  near  at  hand.  In  addition 
to  the  woes  of  his  country  which  he  saw  around  him, 
his  faculties  had  long  been  decaying  under  the  strain  of 
private  anxieties.  He  was  now  visibly  a  broken  man. 
-Shortly  before  his  imprisonment,  though  all  but  seventy 
years  of  age,  he  had  fallen  deeply  in  love  with  a  girl 
.  hardly  out  of  her  teens,  an  Englishwoman  and  a  Pro- 
testant. Her  persistent  refusals  to  marry  him  allayed 
neither  his  passion  nor  his  disturbance  of  mind.  His 
•religious  austerities  increased  ;  his  family  began  to  fear 
that  he  might  take  the  Trappist  vows.  Fierce  attacks 
were  made  on  him  for  his  inveterate  habit  of  controlling 
the  expenditure  of  the  Repeal  Association,  without 
{)ermitting  the  accounts  to  be  published.  He  dis- 
dained the  imputations  upon  his  honesty,  but  he 
•could  not  forget  that  the  best  friends  of  the  cause 
condemned  his  refusal  to  publish  the  accounts. 
During  the  misery  of  the  famine  the  Tufu*8  sent  a 
special  correspondent  to  investigate  the  condition 
of  his  estates  about  Darrynane,  and  pubhshed  a 
very  dark  account  of  his  conduct  as  a  landlord. 
The  warfare  of  oontradictions,  which  this  entailed, 
was    very    harassing     to     his    health.      His    physical 


192  LIFE  OF  DANIEL  O'CONNELL. 

powers  now  gave  way.  He  paid  his  last  visit  to  Darry- 
nane  in  September  1846 ;  his  once  upright  figure  wa» 
bent ;  the  vivacity  of  manner  and  the  elasticity  of  foot- 
step, which  had  long  been  remarkable  in  him,  were 
gone  ;  he  shuffled  rather  than  walked  into  his  house. 
On  the  26th  of  January  1847  he  left  Ireland  for  the 
last  time  and  the  darkness  of  the  hour  was  accentuated 
by  the  fact  that  on  the  steamer,  among  his  fellow-pas- 
sengers, there  chanced  to  be  a  Protestant  clergyman  and 
a  Catholic  priest,  both  visiting  England  to  beg  alms 
for  their  starving  parishioners.  He  appeared  in  Parlia- 
ment on  February  8th,  and  solemnly  warned  the  Go-^ 
vernment  that  they  little  realised  how  great  was  the 
misery  and  disaster  impending  over  Ireland.  A  quarter 
of  the  people  must  die  if  the  House  would  not  save 
them,  and  that  could  be  done  only  by  some  great 
act  of  national  charity.  It  was  a  solemn  appeal  and 
the  House  listened  to  it  with  respect,  but  the  change . 
in  O'Connell  himself  was  distressing.  His  eloquence 
was  gone.  He  appeared  to  be  '*  a  feeble  old  man  mut- 
tering at  a  table  "  ;  his  figure  was  shrunk  ;  his  once 
splendid  voice  was  so  feeble  that  it  could  scarcely  be 
heard.     He  was  but  the  wreck  of  himself. 

He  went  to  Hastings  to  recover  a  little  strength  and 
then  to  Folkestone.  But  he  knew  ho  was  a  dying  man,, 
and  he  was  eager  at  all  hazards,  before  he  died,  to  .reach 
Kome,  the  sacred  seat  of  his  Church.  He  embarked 
amid  a  great  crowd,  and  on  March  22nd  reached  Bou- 
logne. He  was  visited  at  his  hotel,  the  Hotel  des 
Bains,  by  the  Abbe  van  Drival,  a  canon  of  Arras.  He 
was  wearing  his  green  and  gold  Liberator's  cap,  but  he 
.was  feeble,  full  of  the  preoccupation  of  death,  full  of  the 
fear  that  he  had  not  strength  to  reach  Rome.  The 
Abbe    wished    him    better    health.      *'  God's   will   be 


LAST  DAYS.  198 

done/*    said    O'Connell    in    an    inexpressibly    solemn 
tone. 

Sa  tete  [says  the  Abb^]  etait  enorme,  sa  face  carree  comme  la  fac« 
d*uii  lion ;  ses  traits  etaient  fortement  marques ;  le  feu  jaillissaii 
de  ses  yeux  pourtant.  ...  II  etait  e'rident  qu'  O'Connell  e'tait  alors 
preoccupe  sans  ccsse  d'une  seule  idee,  qui  ne  le  quittait  plus,  et  dont 
on  m*avait  recommande  de  ne  lui  point  parler,  les  malheurs  d'Irlande, 
les  folies  d*  O'Brien.* 

Travelling  by  slow  stages  he  reached  Paris  on  the 
26th.  At  the  Hotel  Windsor  great  numbers  of  per- 
sons came  to  visit  him,  among  them  Montalembert  and 
De  Berryer.  He  consulted  Doctors  Chomel  and  Oliffe 
and  was  told  that  he  was  dying  of  a  lingering  congestion 
of  the  brain  of  two  or  three  years  standing.  By  slow 
degrees  he  was  brought  by  Nevers,  Moulines,  and  Lapa- 
lisse  to  Lyons,  which  he  reached  on  April  11th.  There 
he  was  detained  for  several  days  by  frost  and  snow. 
The  people  took  the  liveliest  interest  in  his  welfare ; 
prayers  were  said  for  his  recovery  in  all  the  churches. 
If  he  walked  abroad,  crowds  gathered  round  him,  but, 
oppressed  by  melancholy,  his  head  hung  down,  moving 
by  slow  and  painful  steps,  he  did  not  notice  tbem.  He 
left  Lyons  on  the  22nd,  and  passing  through  Avignon^ 
reached  Marseilles  on  May  3rd.  The  day  but  one  after 
he  sailed  for  Genoa,  and  on  arriving  went  to  the  Hotel 
Fader.  He  never  left  it  alive.  He  was  attended  by 
Dr.  Miley  of  Dublin  as  his  chaplain,  and  his  faithful 
valet  Duggan.  He  was  soon  very  ill  ;  leeches  were 
applied  but  gave  him  no  relief.  Presently  he  became 
delirious,  and  was  oppressed  with  a  haunting  fear  that 
lie  might  be  buried  before  life  had  really  left  his  body. 
For  some  days,  with  occasional  intervals  of  conscious- 
ness, he  remained  in  this  condition.  At  dawn  on  the 
*  (/Connell  et  /«  ColUge  Anglai$  Sl  OmtTi  par  Louis  Ommk, 
ArrM,  1867. 

18 


J 94  LIFE  OF  DANIEL  O'CONNELL. 

morning  of  the  15th,  the  Cardinal  Archbishop  of  Genoa, 
though  in  extreme  old  age,  came  at  a  hasty  summons 
and  administered  the  last  sacraments  of  the  Koman 
Church.  **  All  Genoa  was  praying  for  him.''  His  last 
hour  had  indeed  come ;  at  half-past  nine  that  night  he 
died. 

His  will  directed  that  his  heart  should  be  removed 
and  buried  in  Rome.  His  body  was  taken  to  the 
hospital  on  the  day  after  his  death  and  embalmed.  His 
heart  was  placed  in  an  urn  and  taken  to  Eome,  and 
there,  with  many  pompous  obsequies,  placed  in  the 
Church  of  St.  Agatha,  where  there  is  a  monument  to 
him  representing  him  at  the  bar  of  the  House  of 
Commons  refusing  the  old  Parliamentary  oath.  His 
body  was  brought  to  Ireland  and  reached  Dublin  in 
August.  It  was  received  with  almost  royal  honours 
and  was  buried  on  the  5th  in  Glasnevin  cemetery. 
In  1869  an  Irish  round  tower,  165  feet  high,  was  erected 
to  his  memory  and  his  body  was  then  removed  to  a 
crypt  at  its  base. 


195 


CHAPTER  X. 

DOMESTIC    LIFE    AND   CHABACTBB. 

Hie  wife  and  family — His  domestic  life  and  amasements — ffis  per- 
sonal piety — His  appearance — His  oratory — His  political  cha- 
racter and  achievements. 

O'OoNNELL  lived  from  his  thirtieth  to  his  Latest  year 
full  in  face  of  the  public.  The  law  courts,  the  platform, 
or  the  House  of  Commons,  claimed  all  his  energies  and 
most  of  his  time.  Though  devotedly  attached  to  his 
family  and  his  domestic  life,  they  formed  but  a  small 
part  of  his  existence.  He  married  on  June  23rd  1802  a 
distant  relative,  Mary,  daughter  of  Dr.  Edward  O'Con- 
nell  of  Tralee ;  the  marriage,  which  was  contrary  to  the 
wishes  of  his  uncle  Maurice,  was  celebrated  privately  in 
Dame  Street,  Dublin,  in  the  lodgings  of  James  Connor, 
the  bride's  brother-in-law.  Maurice  O'Connell  was  at 
first  deeply  offended  at  the  mntch^  but  presently  became 
reconciled  to  it.  Of  this  marriage  a  numerous  family 
was  born  :  four  sons,  Maurice,  Morgan,  and  John,  all 
at  different  times  members  of  ParliamtMit,  and  f)anicl  ; 
and  three  daughters,  £llen,  who  married  Christopher 
Fitzsimon,  Catharine,  who  married  Charles  O'Connell, 

18  • 


196  LIFE  OF  DANIEL  O'CONNELL. 

and  Elizabeth,  who  married  Nicholas  French  of  Fort 
William,  Roscommon.  Surrounded  by  his  family,  he 
took  the  little  distraction  that  he  allowed  himself  from 
his  profession  and  his  agitation.  His  life  was  sternly 
laborious  and  punctiliously  methodical. 

He  told  me  [says  Mrs.  Nicol]that  for  twenty-five  years  of  his  life  he 
rose  soon  after  four,  lighted  his  own  fire,  and  was  always  seated  at 
business  at  five  ;  at  half -past  eight  one  of  his  little  girls  came  by  turns 
to  announce  breakfast ;  gave  an  hour  to  that.  At  half-past  ten  he  set 
oflF  to  the  Court-house,  walked  two  miles  therein  twenty-five  minutes, 
always  reached  the  Court  five  minutes  before  the  judges  arrived. 
From  eleven  to  half-past  three  was  not  a  minute  unoccupied ;  at  half- 
past  three  he  returned,  taking  the  office  of  the  Catholic  Association 
on  his  way.  He  always  went  in  (the  regular  meetings  were  only 
once  a  week),  read  the  letters,  wrote  a  sentence  or  two  in  reply,  out  of 
which  his  secretary  wrote  a  full  letter.  Returned  home,  dined  at 
four ;  with  his  family  till  half -past  six,  then  went  to  his  study  - 
went  to  bed  at  a  quarter  before  ten,  his  head  on  his  pillow  always 
at  ten. 

After  he  gave  up  practice  at  the  bar,  about  the  time 
when  he  entered  Parliament,  he  was  less  stern  with 
himself^  and  the  family  breakfast  hour  became  ten. 
But  it  was  at  Darrynane  that  his  real  moments  of  hap- 
piness were  passed.  It  had  been  the  home  of  his  boy- 
hood, and  it  was  the  solace  of  his  old  age.  He  found 
in  wandering  upon  the  Atlantic  shores,  or  among  the 
mountains  of  Kerry,  food  at  once  for  his  imagination 
and  for  the  vein  of  melancholy  that  ran  through  his  as 
it  runs  through  all  Irish  natures.  His  enjoyment  of 
nature  in  contrast  to  the  sordid  business,  in  which  he 
was  obliged  to  spend  so  much  of  his  time,  was  keen.  In 
1829  he  wrote  regretfully  to  a  friend  of  his  night  jour- 
ney through  the  Kerry  Hills  from  Darrynane  to  Cork  to 
defend  the  Doneraile  prisoners  :  "  At  ten  that  morning, 
after  that  glorious  feast  of  soul,  I  found  myself  settled 
down  amid  all  the  rascalities  of  an  Irish  Court  of  Jus- 


DOMESTIC  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER,       197 

tice."  To  the  Kerry  sport  of  hare-hunting  with  beagles 
among  the  hills,  he  was  passionately  attached.  His 
pack  was  famous  all  over  Ireland.  At  night  he  would 
go  round  his  drawing-room  and  ask  his  guests,  **  Are 
you  for  the  mountain  in  the  morning  ?  ^'  and  gave 
orders  for  the  huntsman  to  call  the  sportsmen  at  4  a.m. 
Equipped  with  a  long  wooden  staff,  he  followed  hifT 
dogs  on  foot,  even  in  his  old  age,  with  extraordinary 
vigour  and  fleetness.  While  his  companions  beat  for 
game,  he  would  hold  a  hasty  court  to  arbitrate  upon  the 
quarrels  of  his  tenants,  and  would  break  away  from  them 
to  cheer  on  his  beagles,  and  pursue  the  chase  from  one 
hill-top  to  another.  Breakfast  was  brought  out  to  the 
hillside,  but  the  party,' however  fasting,  was  not  allowed 
to  sit  down  till  two  hares  at  least  had  been  killed.  At 
breakfast  he  eagerly  devoured  the  contents  of  his  post- 
bag  ;  but  when  the  time  came  for  starting  the  hunt 
again,  he  impetuously  strewed  the  grass  with  the  letters 
and  newspapers  that  he  threw  away.  In  such  hard  sport 
his  day  was  spent,  and  at  dark  he  would  return  home 
the  freshest  of  the  whole  party.  When  he  refused  to  be 
<Jhief  Baron,  **  I  don't  at  all  deny,"  said  he,  **  that  the 
office  would  have  had  great  attractions  for  me.  There 
would  not  be  more  than  eighty  days  duty  in  the  year. 
I  would  take  a  country  house  near  Dublin  and  walk 
into  town,  and  during  the  intervals  of  judicial  labour 
1  'd  go  to  Darrynane.  I  should  bo  idle  in  the  early 
part  of  April,  just  when  the  jack  hares  leave  the  most 
splendid  trails  on  the  mountains.''  In  1840,  when  ho 
was  sixty-five,  he  wrote  to  bis  son  John  that  he  had 
killed  five  hares  in  one  day,  and  it  was  always  to  Dar- 
rynane that  ho  turned  whenever  he  could  snatch  a  brief 
respite  from  the  toils  of  agitation. 

There   he   kept  almost   open    house.      His  relatives 


19H        .    LIFE  OF  DANIEL  O'CONNELL, 

alone  were  very  numerous,  for  he  had  twenty-one 
uncles  and  aunts,  and  seven  married  sisters,  and  wa» 
kind  to  all  his  kinsfolk ;  but  visitors  from  abroad,  and 
even  the  casual  tourist  who  passed  his  door,  were  hos- 
pitably received.  His  table  was  generally  laid  for  thirty 
at  Darrynane.  In  Dublin  he  lived  for  nearly  forty 
years  at  30  Merrion  Square  south,  and  there  he  loved 
to  make  a  handsome  figure.  He  set  up  his  carriage  when 
he  had  been  a  few  years  at  the  bar,  and  his  green  coach 
and  his  footmen  in  green  liveries  were  a  striking  sight 
in  the  streets  of  Dublin.  He  was  burthened,  too,  with 
the  expense  of  a  house  in  London  during  the  session  of 
Parliament.  Generally  he  lived  in  Langham  Place,  but 
in  1832  he  had  a  house  in  Albemarle  Street,  and  in 
1835  at  9  Clarges  Street.  All  these  expenses,  together 
with  agitation,  elections,  and  the  maintenance  of  his 
sons  in  Parliament,  caused  him  an  enormous  annual 
outlay,  and  he  was  a  man  habitually  careless  of  money^ 
He  lived  in  a  world  where  debt  was  no  discredit,  and 
had  little  time  to  spare  for  the  regulation  of  his  private 
affairs.  Shortly  after  he  was  called  to  the  bar  he  ac^ 
cepted  bills  to  accommodate  a  friend,  which  hampered 
him  for  twenty  years,  nor  was  he  ever  free  from  embar- 
rassments. And  yet  his  means  were  large.  In  addition 
to  his  professional  income,  his  patrimony  was  handsome. 
His  uncle  Maurice  died,  a  childless  widower,  in  1825,. 
and  left  his  estates  at  Darrynane  to  his  nephew.  They 
were  estimated  to  be  worth  5^4,000  a  year,  though  as  to 
one-half  O'Connell  is  said  to  have  had  only  a  life^ 
interest.  By  the  death  of  his  uncle,  Count  Daniel,  in 
1834  he  also  inherited  a  considerable  fortune.  Fifty 
thousand  pounds  was  subscribed  for  him  in  1829  after 
the  passing  of  the  Relief  Act,  and  the  O'Connell  Tri- 
bute   or   National   Annuity     subsequently    became   an 


DOMESTIC  LIFE  AND  CHABAGTEB.       199 

annual  offering.  It  was  managed  for  him  with  great 
skill  by  Patrick  Vincent  Fitzpatrick,  a  wit  and  bon 
vivant  who  did  not  concern  himself  with  politics,  and 
was  collected  in  sums  of  10s.  and  5s.,  chiefly  from  the 
clergy  and  middle  classes.  A  day  was  fixed  for  its 
simultaneous  collection  in  chapels  and  other  places,  and 
a  writer  of  repute  was  employed  to  compose  a  eulogy 
upon  its  object.  Its  gross  amount  averaged  £15,000, 
but  the  expenses  of  collection  were  so  heavy  as  to  reduce 
its  proceeds  to  O'Connell  to  £10,000. 

He  was  virulently  attacked  for  receiving  this  tribute, 
and  was  called  "  the  big  beggarman,"  and  a  **  paid 
patriot."  But,  since  the  controversies  of  his  lifetime 
have  been  calmed,  no  fair  man  has  condemned  him  for 
taking  the  free  offerings  of  a  people,  for  whose  service 
he  had  resigned  his  profession  and  spent  all  his  ener- 
gies. Yet  he  died  poor,  and  left  his  family  little  more 
than  a  competence.  His  conduct  in  money  matters  was 
fiercely  assailed,  and  be  was  charged  with  mismanage- 
ment of  the  large  sums  of  the  Catholic  and  Repeal  Rent 
which  passed  through  his  hands,  but  not  one  of  these 
charges  could  be  sustained.  It  should  be  remembered 
that  for  years  he  had  only  to  ask,  and  he  might  have 
procured  for  every  one  of  his  male  relatives  lucrative 
and  easy  Government  posts.  Yet  the  only  offices  his 
relatives  held  were  a  stipendiary  magistracy  hold  by  his 
son-in-law,  and  a  registrarship  by  his  son  Maurice, 
which  was  not  given  at  his  desire. 

Altliough  when  first  he  returned  from  France  he  was 
affected  by  some  sceptical  doubts,  through  all  the  years 
of  his  latter  life  ho  was  devoutly  and  sincerely  pious. 
He  employed  the  leisure  hours  of  his  first  years  at  the 
bar  in  translating  Arnaud's  Proofs  of  the  Infallibility 
of  the  Church.     In  1824  and  1826  he  engaged  in  public 


200  LIFE  OF  DANIEL  O'CONNELL. 

controversies  with  Mr.  Noel  and  with  Daly,  afterwards 
Bishop  of  Cashel.  His  theological  learning,  however, 
was  small.  It  was  his  habit,  however  busy  he  was,  how- 
ever late  he  had  gone  to  rest,  in  Dublin  and  in  London 
constantly  to  attend  early  mass  at  some  neighbouring 
chapel,  and  at  Darrynane,  his  domestic  chaplain.  Father 
O'Sullivan,  celebrated  mass  daily  at  9  a.m.  In  August 
1838  he  performed  a  retreat  of  great  austerity  at  the  Cis- 
tercian Convent  of  Mount  Melleraye  in  Waterford.  To  be- 
guile the  tedium  of  his  long  and  wearisome  journeys  from 
meeting  to  meeting,  he  was  accustomed  to  repeat  to 
himself  Latin  hymns.  That  he  was  unconscious  of  the 
edifying  effect  upon  both  priests  and  people  of  such  dis- 
tinguished piety  is  not  likely  ;  but  ifwould  be  equally 
unreasonable  to  suppose,  that  he  was  prompted  to  it 
by  anything  but  the  natural  impulse  of  a  religious  mind. 
In  all  his  correspondence  with  bishops  and  clergy  and 
constantly  in  speaking  of  them  he  used  language  of 
deference,  not  to  say  subjection,  which  now  has  a  very 
singular  appearance  and  in  his  later  days  gave  some 
offence  to  the  younger  generation  by  whom  he  was  sur- 
rounded. Nature  had  given  him,  and  his  foreign  edu- 
cation had  increased,  a  hierocratic  turn  of  mind,  which 
made  him  rest  gladly  upon  the  authority  of  the  priest- 
hood, and  act  with  them  without  misgiving  or  misun- 
derstanding. 

His  personal  appearance  was  impressive.  He  was 
but  half-an-inch  under  six  feet  in  height,  but  a  round- 
ness about  the  shoulders,  which  increased  his  naturally 
burly  and  ecclesiastical  appearance,  rather  diminished 
his  apparent  stature.  His  figure  was  broad  and  thick,  his 
step  energetic  and  swift,  and  in  his  customary  green  coat 
and  broad-brimmed  hat,  striding  swiftly  along,  he  was  a 
well-known  and  remarkable  figure   about  the  streets  of 


DOMESTIC  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER.      201 

Dublin.  His  mouth  and  the  lower  part  of  his  face  were 
'beautifully  shaped,  but  his  nose  was  short,  and  gave  to 
its  upper  part  a  rather  vulgar  appearance.  As  a  young 
man  his  complexion  was  very  ruddy  ;  his  eyes  were  keen 
blue,  and  from  middle-life  he  habitually  wore  a  black 
wig.  Such  was  his  face  in  repose,  but  when  excited  or 
animated,  it  was  extraordinarily  mobile,  and  flashed 
with  every  phase  of  emotion.  Humour,  pathos,  scorn, 
iindignation,  hopefulness,  or  gloom,  all  seemed  equally 
the  natural  expression  of  a  face,  which  instantly  reflected 
•every  mood  of  the  feeling  within.  Though  he  greatly 
•disliked  sitting  for  portraits,  many  exist.  The  earliest 
is  a  pencil  sketch,  dated  1810,  and  engraved  in  Miss 
•Cusack's  life  of  him.  There  is  also  a  portrait  by  Ha- 
verty  in  the  National  Bank  and  another  by  Catterson 
Smith  in  the  Municipal  Chamber  at  the  City  Hall, 
Dublin,  and  he  also  sat  to  Duval  and  to  Wilkie.  There 
are  statues  of  him  by  Hogan  in  the  Dublin  City  Hall 
and  at  Limerick,  by  Foley  in  Dublin,  and  by  Cahill  in 
Ennis. 

No  doubt  there  was  in  his  composition  a  oertain  rude 

animalism^    almost     inseparable     from     a    nature    so 

buoyant,   so  energetic,    so  indefatigable.     He   appears 

after  his  marriage   to  have    been    engaged  in  at  least 

one    intrigue,     the    fruit    of    which    was    a    natural 

son,    who  was  born   about   1820,    and    to   whom    and 

his   mother    he    behaved    with    considerable    neglect. 

In   manner  ho  was   obliging,  suave,  kindly,  especially 

to  children,  of  whom  he  was  very  fond.     In  spite  of 

the   violence   which   he   displayed    towards   his   public 

•opponents    he   was    singularly   forbearing    to    private 

^enemies;   he   never   made  use  of  his  powers  to  their 

injury,  and  often  employed  it  for  their  promotion  or 

advantage. 


202  LIFE  OF  DANIEL  O'CONNELL. 

One  so  busy  as  he  was  from  manhood  to  old  age,  had 
naturally  scant  time  for  study.  He  appears  to  have 
had  little  scholarship,  and  beyond  his  profession  little 
learning,  though  his  great  talent  enabled  him  to  put 
all  he  knew  to  the  best  use.  He  was  an  admirer  of 
Dickens,  and  read  novels  eagerly  but  few  other  books. . 
His  speeches  owe  singularly  little  to  quotation  or 
allusion.  For  his  jest  upon  Stanley  and  his  seceding 
companions, 

See  down  thy  vale,  romantic  Ashbourne,  glides 
The  Derby  dilly  carrying  six  insides, 

he  is  said  to  have  been  indebted  to  Romayne,  member- 
for  Clonmel ;  and  almost  his  only  other  witticism  that 
owes  anything  to  literature  is  the  well-known  parody 
upon  Colonels  Sibthorp,  Percival,  and  Verny : — 

Three  colonels  in  three  distant  counties  born, 
Lincoln,  Armagh,  and  Sligo  did  adorn : 
The  first  in  matchless  impudence  surpassed, 
The  next  in  bigotry,  in  both  the  last. 
The  force  of  nature  could  no  further  go, 
To  beard  the  third  she  shaved  the  other  two. 

His  publications  were  almost  confined  to  his  nume- 
rous letters  upon  public  questions,  of  which  perhaps  the 
best  is  his  Letter  to  the  Earl  of  Shrewshury,  in  1842.. 
He  also  began  a  work  called  a  Memoir  on  Ireland, 
'Native  and  Saxon,  published  in  1843,  an  extremely 
amorphous  and  ill-digested  book,  which  has  not  even* 
the  merit  of  being  thoroughly  accurate.  It  never  got 
beyond  one  volume.  In  1836  he  became,  with  Dr. 
Wiseman,  part-editor  and  proprietor  of  the  Dublin 
RevieiVy  but  whether  he  took  any  part  in  writing  for  it 
does  not  appear.  A  long  article  upon  his  uncle,  Count 
Daniel  O'Connell,  which  appeared  in  the  journals  of 
1834,    is  also    attributed    to  him.     His  knowledge  of 


DOMESTIC  LIFE  AND  GHAUACTEB.       205 

French  literature  was  small ;  but  he  spoke  French  fairly 
well,  though  not  with  perfect  ease.  In  December  1835 
he  was  approached  on  behalf  of  the  "Lyons  conspira- 
tors," who  were  to  be  tried  on  a  charge  of  high  treason 
before  the  French  chamber  of  peers,  and  was  asked  to 
go  to  France  as  their  advocate.  His  answer — a  refusal 
— is  interesting.     He  says  : — 

I  am  restraiued  from  attempting  it  by  one  only  motive,  the  convic- 
tion  of  sheer  incapacity  to  perform  that  duty  eflBciently  in  the  French 
language.  It  is  true  that  I  understand  the  language  well,  but  I  can- 
not speak  it  with  that  abundant  fluency,  which  so  imj)oii;ant  an  argu- 
ment would  require.  I  never  write  out  any  discourse  beforehand,  nor 
could  I  do  it  without  utterly  cramping  the  force  and  nerve  of  the 
very  limited  talent  I  possess,  and  my  command  of  the  French  lan- 
guage is  not  sufficient  to  enable  me  to  translate  my  ideas  as  I  went 
along  in  speaking  without  embarrassing  my  powers  of  thought. 

But  as  an  orator  O'Connell  had  very  great  genius ; 
in  oratory  he  found  his  natural  and  constant  ex- 
pression. Yet  he  had  the  strength  of  mind  never  to 
give  the  reins  to  his  tongue  for  the  mere  purpose  of 
personal  display.  In  the  conduct  of  a  cause  he  was  in 
every  moment  an  actor ;  he  affected  extreme  careless- 
ness to  cover  his  anxiety,  indignation  to  hide  a  bad  case, 
bonhomie  to  put  a  witness  off  his  guard,  woe  to  touch 
the  feelings  of  a  jury,  and  he  never  allowed  himself  to 
make  a  fine  speech  at  the  cost  of  his  client.  **  Ah  !  "  he 
said,  ''  a  speech  is  a  fine  thing,  but  the  verdict  is  the 
great  thing."  Thus  playing  a  part  at  will,  and  never, 
in  his  most  impassioned  moments,  losing  his  self- 
oontrol,  ho  adapted  himself  with  marvellous  versa- 
tility to  every  audience  and  every  style  of  address.  In 
the  Crown  Court,  at  nuti  prius,  or  in  banco ;  before 
a  mob.  a  committee,  or  the  House  of  Commons,  he 
played  the  tolc  suited  to  the  place.  Where  too  many 
of  the  great  Irish  barristers  had  been  helpless  unless 


204  LIFE  OF  DANIEL  O'GONNELL. 

they  were  appealing  to  all  the  noblest  passions  of  hu* 
inanity,  he  could  argue  a  right  of  way  case  or  a  nice 
point  upon  a  criminal  indictment,  without  rhetoric  and 
as  a  lawyer  should  argue  it.  Before  a  mass  meeting  he 
was  a  demagogue,  bold,  rollicking,  emotional ;  in  the 
House  of  Commons  he  put  off  the  demagogue  and  spoke 
clearly  and  calmly,  except  when  he  dealt  about  swash- 
ing blows  with  calculated  ferocity.  In  the  conduct  of 
the  multifarious  business  of  the  Catholic  or  the  Repeal 
Association,  he  was  rapid,  matter-of-fact,  and  business- 
like; and  in  an  after-dinner  speech  he  could  draw  upon 
an  unfailing  fund  of  wit  or  pathos  to  adorn  an  oration 
about  nothing  at  all.  Never  preparing  his  speeches, 
he  showed  a  roughness  in  his  mode  of  expression, 
which,  though  often  more  trenchant  and  telling  than  the 
most  carefully  prepared  rhetoric,  was  still  oftener  in- 
elegant and  cumbrous.  In  Sheil's  often  quoted  phrase, 
**  He  brings  forth  a  brood  of  lusty  thoughts  without  a 
rag  to  cover  them."  M.  Duvergier  speaks  of  him  as 
"  throwing  out  his  opinions  in  a  negligent  manner," 
and  N.  P.  Rogers  describes  his  speaking  as  '^  public 
talk."  He  never  scrupled  to  repeat  himself;  indeed,  it 
was  one  of  his  devices  to  hit  upon  some  telling  phrase, 
which  an  ignorant  audience  could  carry  away,  to  repeat  it 
over  and  over  again  in  every  form,  and  to  do  this  at  meet- 
ing after  meeting,  untilby  constant  reiteration  the  public 
had  thoroughly  learnt  its  lesson.  This  habit  of  repetition 
occasionally  took  odd  forms.  He  was  fond  of  making 
gushing  allusions  in  his  speeches  to  his  mother,  his 
wife,  his  children,  and  his  grandchildren.  After  his  wife's 
death  in  1826,  he  said  in  one  of  his  speeches  :  **  But  that 
subject  brings  me  back  to  a  being  of  whom  I  dare  not 
speak  in  the  profanation  of  words.  No !  I  will  not 
mention  that  name,"  and  so   forth.     For  once  this  was 


DOMESTIC  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER.       205 

all  very  well ;  having  accidentally  reminded  himself  of 
his  lost  wife,  the  bereaved  widower  might  well  check 
himself  thus.  But  Daunt  heard  him  repeat  this  im- 
promptu in  public  speeches  several  times,  and  always  in 
identically  the  same  words.  To  wear  one*s  heart  on 
one's  sleeve  in  this  way,  and  affect  to  find  it  painful, 
strikes  the  spectator  as  being  curiously  inconsistent ; 
yet  no  doubt  each  time  that  he  said  it,  O'Connell,  accus-. 
tomed  for  thirty  years  to  feel  in  public,  was  perfectly 
sincere,  and  saw  no  reason  why  he  should  not  use  over 
again  a  passage  which  had  so  often  proved  efficacious 
before.  His  readiness  and  self-possession  in  controlling 
an  audience  were  marvellous.  During  the  Repeal  year- 
he  was  anxious  to  restrain  his  followers  from  violent 
expressions  of  hatred  towards  the  Government  without 
at  the  same  time  giving  them  offence.  **  I  wish  a  crow 
picked  Peel's  eyes  out,"  bawled  an  angry  auditor  parenthe- 
tically at  one  of  the  great  meetings.  **  I  wish  a  crow," 
retorted  O'Connell  instantly,  "  came  and  stuffed  your 
mouth  with  potatoes."  On  another  occasion,  when  the 
people  were  densely  packed  together,  a  horse,  picketed 
on  the  fringe  of  the  crowd,  broke  loose  and  caused  a 
panic.  There  was  an  alarm  that  the  meeting  was 
charged  by  dragoons.  In  a  mom(»nt  a  dangerous  stam- 
pede would  have  begun.  **  Stop,"  thundered  O'Connell 
at  the  top  of  his  voice,  and  the  crowd  stopped  instantly 
and  order  was  restored.  At  another  meeting,  which 
was  held  in  a  loft,  it  had  been  thought  necessary  to< 
underpin  the  floor,  to  provide  for  the  weight  of  the 
crowd.  O'Counell  was  speaking,  when  word  was  passed 
to  him  that  the  floor  was  unsafe,  and  that  the  stays  wen^ 
giving  way.  1  lo  calmly  finished  his  sentence,  and  then 
said  that  circumstances  rendered  it  necessary  to  adjourn 
the  meeting    to    a    plot  of  vacant    land    hard   by,  and4 


206  LIFE  OF  DANIEL  0' CON  NELL. 

asked  the  people  to  file  out  and  go  there.  In  a  few 
moments  it  became  plain  that  this  would  not  be  done 
without  a  dangerous  amount  of  jostling.  Then  he 
quietly  told  them  the  state  of  the  case,  ordered  them  to 
file  out  right  and  left,  two  and  two,  at  the  door,  and  said 
he  would  leave  the  room  last  himself.  The  people 
became  perfectly  quiet  and  obeyed  his  instructions,  and 
though  they  were  three-quarters  of  an  hour  in  getting 
out  no  accident  occurred. 

But  however  open  to  criticism  his  speeches  may  be 
from  the  point  of  view  of  the  student  of  rhetoric,  how- 
ever unfinished  or  redundant  they  may  seem  when  read, 
they  produced  as  they  fell  from  his  lips  an  effect  almost 
unexampled.  He  was  gifted  with  a  superb  voice,  full  as 
a  bell,  of  wide  compass  and  of  great  power.  He  had 
carefully  studied  Pitt's  speaking,  and  had  attained  a  per- 
fectly natural  and  unstudied  action.  His  was  the 
instinct  of  an  orator,  never  so  much  at  home  as  when 
talking  with  the  people  at  his  feet.  He  had  a  fine 
presence,  a  complete  command  of  telling,  nervous  lan- 
guage, a  rich  Irish  accent  which  went  to  his  hearers' 
hearts,  and  a  finished  delivery,  and  thus  equipped,  he 
threw  himself  into  his  work  and  dilated  upon  the  sub- 
ject which  engrossed  him  with  superb  and  exhaustless 
eloquence.  The  peroration  of  his  speech  on  the  first 
reading  of  the  Coercion  Bill  of  1833  is  a  good  example 
of  his  unprepared  and  inornate  but  flowing  and  affecting 
eloquence  : — 

I  have  now  wearied  the  House.  I  have  not  exhansted  the  subject, 
nor  have  I  exhausted  the  deep  interest  I  feel  in  it.  I  say,  that  as  far 
as  political  agitation  is  concerned,  there  is  no  such  case  made  out, 
that  any  dispassionate  man,  putting  his  hand  to  his  heart,  can  say 
there  is  evidence  to  connect  it  with  predial  insurrection.  Upon  in- 
quiring into  the  subject,  facts  to  the  contrary  stare  you  in  the  face. 
Is    not   Ireland   in    distress?      Is    she  not    in   want,  and    suffering 


DOMESTIC  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER,       207 

grievances  ?  The  noble  Lord,  the  Member  for  Armagh,  exclaims 
that  relief  must  be  given,  and  you  promise  relief.  Oh  yes !  if  we 
pass  this  Bill  you  will  give  us  a  measure  of  Church  Relief  !  But  are 
you  sure  of  passing  that  measure  of  relief  in  another  House  ?  It  has 
little  immediate  practical  benefit  besides  the  abolition  of  Church-cess. 
But  to  secure  it,  why  not  adopt  the  wise  motion  of  my  honourable 
friend  and  keep  your  hands  off  this  measure  until  you  have  steered 
the  other  over  the  rocks  and  quicksands  in  another  place  ?  I  am  not 
entering  into  any  compromise.  I  say  that  Ireland  requires  relief,  and 
I  ask  how  do  you  propose  to  afford  it  her  ?  You  will  not  apply  any 
part  of  the  rich  revenues  of  the  Church  to  the  relief  of  the  poor. 
What  is  to  become  of  them  ?  You  can  give  them  nothing ;  and  the 
•only  thing  I  can  offer  them  is  hope — the  hope  of  a  domestic  Legisla- 
ture. You  may  think  that  a  delusive  hope.  How  are  j'ou  to  show  it 
to  be  such  ?  By  anticipating  me,  by  evincing  that  you  are  a  protect- 
ing Legislature — that  you  are  a  kind  and  paternal  Legislature.  Oh  ! 
instead  of  that  you  turn  away  the  look  of  kindliness,  you  turn  away 
all  benetits  and  leave  the  grinding  evils.  You  leave  the  rack-renting 
absentees,  you  leave  every  misery  and  grievance  untouched;  for 
bread  you  give  them  a  stone  ;  you  raise  the  scorpion  rod  of  despotic 
authority  over  them,  and  say  that  **  you  must  be  feared  before  yon 
«can  be  loved."  I  deny  it,  Sir.  I  deny  that  you  have  made  out  a  case  ; 
I  deny  that  you  have  shown  that  predial  insurrection  has  anything  to 
•do  with  political  agitation ;  I  deny  the  right  upon  which  you  foand 
this  coercion  ;  I  deny  that  witnesses  have  been  injured,  lately  at  least, 
to  any  public  knowledge.  If  they  have,  I  utterly  deny  that  any  juror 
has  been  injured  during  the  whole  period  of  this  political  agitation. 
Predial  agitation  subsisted  for  forty  years  before  political  agitation 
-oommonced.  1  laving  thus  demonstrated  that  this  measure  is  by  no  moans 
neooHsary,  shall  I  trust  the  despotic  power  it  confers  to  hands  which  I 
think  ought  to  have  no  power  at  all — to  statosmon  who  mingle  miser- 
able personal  feelings  with  their  political  conduct  ?  I  call  upon  you, 
if  you  would  oonciliato  Ireland — if  you  would  preserve  that  oonnezion 
which  I  desire  you  to  recollect  has  never  yet  conferred  a  single  blessing 
u])on  that  country — that  she  knows  nothing  of  you  but  by  distress,  for- 
feitures, and  confiscations ;  that  you  have  never  visited  her  but  in 
anger ;  that  the  sword  of  desolation  has  often  swept  over  her,  as 
when  Cromwell  sent  his  eighty  thousand  to  perish ;  that  you  have 
burdened  her  with  grinding  penal  laws,  despite  of  the  faith  of  treaties 
And  in  Tiolation  of  every  oompaot,  and  that  you  have  neglected  to 
fulfil  the  promises  you  dealt  out  to  her.  You  have,  it  is  true,  granted 
Oatholic  Emancipation ;  but  nine  and  twenty  years  after  it  was  pro- 
mised, and  five  and  twenty  years  after  the  Parliament  uf  Ireland  must  of 


208  LIFE  OF  DANIEL  O'GONNELL. 

necessity  have  done  so.  We  know  you  as  yet  but  in  our  sufferings  and 
in  our  wrongs  ;  and  you  are  now  kind  enough  to  give  us  as  a  boon  this 
Act,  which  deprives  us  of  the  Trial  by  Jury  and  substitutes  Courts 
Martial — which  deprives  us  of  the  Habeas  Corpus  Act,  and,  in  a  word,, 
imposes  on  a  person  the  necessity  of  proving  himself  innocent.  That 
Act  you  give  us,  and  you  tell  us  it  will  put  down  the  agitation  of  the- 
Repeal  of  the  Union.  I  tell  you  that  until  you  do  us  justice  you  can 
never  expect  to  attain  your  object.  The  present  generation  may 
perish.  Your  Robespierrian  measures  may  destroy  the  existing  popu- 
lation ;  but  the  indignant  soul  of  Ireland  you  can  never  annihilate- 
There  was  a  time  when  a  ray  of  hope  dawned  upon  that  country.  It 
was  when  the  present  Parliament  first  assembled.  We  saw  this  re- 
formed House  of  Commons  congregated.  We  knew  that  every  man. 
here  had  a  constituency ;  we  knew  that  the  people  of  England  were 
represented  here ;  we  knew  that  the  public  voice  not  only  would  influ- 
ence your  decisions  but  command  your  votes;  we  hoped  that  jom 
would  afford  us  a  redress  of  our  grievances — and  you  give  us  an  Act 
of  despotism. 

In  his  situation  he  fell  inevitably  into  exag- 
geration, both  of  praise  and  of  abuse.  His  eulogies 
sometimes  were  so  profusely  distributed  as  to  lose 
all  meaning ;  but  to  the  leader  of  a  motley  com- 
bination of  highly  susceptible  followers  flattery  was  a 
necessary  instrument  of  command.  A  passage  from  a 
speech  of  his  in  1813  is  characteristic  of  this  mood. 
He  was  praising  the  newspapers  of  his  party  : — 

In  Ulster  we  had  the  Belfast  Magazine,  a  work  in  which  all  the 
elegance  of  classic  taste  was  combined  with  all  the  good  feeling  of 
virtuous  sentiment  and  all  the  purity  of  genuine  Irish  patriotism.  .  .  . 
In  Limerick  there  is  one  of  the  best  conducted  and  most  patriotic 
papers  in  the  land,  the  Limerick  Evening  Post.  In  Cork  the  Mercan- 
tile Chronicle,  an  admirable  paper,  most  patriotically  conducted  by 
my  esteemed  friend,  Councillor  O'Donnell,  a  member  of  your  board 
and  a  first-rate  Irishman.  In  the  Evening  Post  we  have  a  brilliant 
advocate,  that  never  ceases  powerfully  to  serve  and  severely  to  suffer 
for  us.  In  the  Freeman^ s  Journal  and  the  Evening  Herald  we  have 
friends  who  cannot  be  bought  nor  intimidated,  and  whose  talents  adorn 
the  cause  of  their  country,  which  they  never  cease  to  promote.  But 
I  muat  point  your  vote  particularly  to  the  proprietor  of  the  Evening 


DOMESTIC  LIFE  AND  CHAEACTEB.       209 

Post,  Unseduced  by  the  pleasures  and  enjoyments  of  youth,  uncon- 
taminated  by  the  selfishness  of  wealth,  unintimidated  by  the  perse- 
cutions of  power,  he  seeks  to  serve  you  as  disinterestedly  as  he  opposes 
your  enemies.  ...  I  cannot  conclude  without  proclaiming  my  con- 
viction that  Ireland  would  be  free  if  she  possessed  a  second  John 
Magee. 

He  was  even  more  extravagant  in  his  abuse  of  his 
enemies,  and  in  this  matter  it  is  hard  to  excuse  him. 
Yet  he  adopted  the  language  of  vituperation  deliberately, 
and  with  a  certain  relish.  It  is  interesting  to  know  that 
his  paternal  grandmother,  an  O'Donoghue,  and  locally 
nicknamed  "  Black  Mary,"  was  pre-eminent,  even  in 
Kerry,  for  her  powers  of  abuse.  O'Connell  inherited  her 
talent,  and  employed  it,  and  defended  its  employment. 
He  thought  it  gave  spirit  to  a  down-trodden  class,  who 
under  persecution  had  forgotten  that  they  had  rights. 
**  When  1  was  working  out  Catholic  Emancipation,"  said 
he,  **  members  of  Parliament  and  private  friends  used  to 
come  to  me  and  say,  *  O'Gonnell,  you  will  never  get 
anything  so  long  as  you  are  so  violent/  What  did  I 
do  ?  Why,  I  became  more  violent,  and  I  succeeded." 
His  language,  however,  was  more  than  violent ;  it  was 
irreclaimably  coarse.  To  call  the  Duke  of  Wellington 
**  a  stunted  corporal,"  Sir  Charles  Napier  **  a  doldrum 
general,"  Lord  Hardinge  a  **  one-armed  miscreant,'* 
had  neither  wit  nor  truth  to  recommend  it,  nor  could 
such  expressions  be  needed  to  inspire  courage  in  a 
people  who  had  proved  their  valour  under  those  very 
commanders.  It  must,  however,  be  remembered  how 
bitterly  and  remorselessly  he  was  all  his  life  attacked, 
and  what  examples  of  abusiveness  he  bad  before  him  in 
the  most  distinguished  of  his  countrymen.  His  reputa- 
tion and  his  life  were  in  almost  hourly  danger.  What- 
ever may  be  thought  of  his  conduct  in  declining  chal- 
lenges,   it   is   certain    that,  if  he    had  been  willing  to 

14 


210  LIFE  OF  DANIEL  O'CONNELL. 

accept  them,  duels  would  have  heen  deliberately  forced 
upon  him,  and  he  would  have  lost  his  life  before  he  was 
fifty.  More  cowardly  attempts  were  made  upon  him  : 
his  carriage  axles  were  tampered  with  and  filed  half 
through  ;  and  in  1825  he  was  waylaid  in  county  Down, 
and  only  escaped  the  assassins  by  the  accidental  break- 
down of  his  carriage  and  the  cunning  of  a  servant. 
Grattan  gave  him  at  onee  a  provocation  and  an  example 
of  abuse  in  language  which  even  O'Connell  could  not 
match.  He  had  described  him  to  Moore  as  **  a  bad 
subject  and  a  worse  rebel,"  but  in  his  irritation  at  the 
event  of  the  "  securities  "  controversy,  he  wrote  of  him 
deliberately  in  an  address  to  the  Catholics  of  Ireland  : 

His  speaking  is  extravagant  diction.  .  .  .  his  liberty  is  not  liberal, 
his  politics  are  not  reason,  his  reason  is  not  learning,  his  learning  is 
not  knowledge ;  his  rhetoric  is  a  gaudy  hyperbole,  garnished  with 
faded  flowers,  such  as  a  drabbled  girl  would  pick  up*  in  Covent  Gar- 
den, stuck  in  with  the  taste  of  a  kitchen-maid.  He  makes  politics  a 
trade.  .  .  .  He  barks  and  barks,  and  even  when  the  filthy  slaverer 
has  exhausted  its  poison  and  returns  to  its  kennel,  it  there  still  howls 
and  barks  within  unseen. 

His  English  enemies  were  better  able  to  preserve 
their  self-respect,  but  their  enmity  was  no  less  bitter, 
and  their  opposition  in  its  way  no  less  galling.  The 
reporters  in  the  House  of  Commons  misreported  his 
speeches,  and  when  he  complained  in  a  speech  at  the 
Globe  Hotel,  they  met  and  resolved  not  to  report  him  at 
all.  He  took  his  revenge  upon  them  by  spying  stran- 
gers and  clearing  them  out  of  the  gallery.  But  society 
placed  its  ban  upon  him.  Theodore  Grenville  ceased  to 
visit  the  house  of  a  friend  because  he  dreaded  meeting 
O'Connell  there.  Even  when  he  was  the  trusty  ally  of 
the  Whigs  he  was  not  a  guest  at  Holland  House  or  at 
Lansdowne  House;  and  in  1840  Guizot,  who  was 
anxious  to  meet  him,  found  it  necessary   to  get  Mrs. 


DOMESTIC  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER,       211 

Stanley  to  arrange  a  dinner  for  the  purpose.  After 
dinner  0*Connell,  finding  other  guests  were  expected, 
humbly  rose  to  go  before  they  arrived,  but  was  at  length 
prevailed  upon  to  stay. 

This  merciless  warfare,  in  which  he  passed  his  life, 
this  cold  and  almost  contemptuous  aversion,  which  was 
displayed  towards  him  by  those  who  ought  to  have  been 
his  friends,  explain  and  excuse,  though  they  cannot 
justify,  the  extraordinary  violence  of  language,  which 
O'Connell  permitted  himself  to  employ.  But  it  was  in 
truth  a  misfortune  to  his  country,  as  well  as  a  discredit 
to  himself.  In  any  case,  the  English  must  have  found 
him  hard  to  understand,  for  when  first  he  became  a 
figure  in  English  politics,  a  Roman  Catholic  of  any 
kind  was  unfamiliar  to  the  English,  and  of  the  Irish  as 
a  people  their  notions  were  ill-informed  and  deeply  preju- 
diced. O'Connell  was  a  fervent  Catholic  and  an  Irish- 
man of  the  Irish.  He  was  Celtic  to  the  very  core, 
though  he  possessed  qualities  rare  among  the  Celts, 
those  of  patience  and  self-control.  It  was  vitally  im- 
portant to  himself  and  to  Ireland  that  be  should  make 
himself  understood  by  the  English,  and  it  ought  to 
have  been  his  study  so  to  comport  himself  before  the 
English  people  as  to  enlist  upon  the  side  of  Ireland 
their  sympathies,  which  are  deep,  and  their  sense  of 
justice,  which  is  invariable ;  to  disarm  their  preju- 
dices and  compel  their  respect.  Unfortunately,  at  a 
hundred  points  he  jarred  upon  them,  offended  tbem, 
alarmed  them.  His  almost  ecclesiastical  suavity  oon- 
irasted  with  their  surly  integrity ;  his  peculiar  want  of 
sensitiveness  and  punctilio  in  the  conduct  of  money 
matter's  offended  a  people  peculiarly  susceptible  upon 
such  points,  and  obscured  his  real  honesty;  his  extraor- 
dinary vivacity  and  seeming  irresponsibility  passed  their 

14  ♦ 


212  LIFE  OF  DANIEL  O'CONNELL. 

comprehension.  A  statesman  and  an  orator,  a  king's 
counsel  learned  in  the  law,  and  the  leader  of  his  people, 
who  could  publicly,  and  without  any  sense  of  reserve, 
engage  in  a  duel  of  abuse  with  a  fishfag  in  the  streets  of 
Dublin,  and  enjoy  his  own  and  his  friends'  congratula- 
tions upon  the  happy  epithets  **  whisky-drinking  paral- 
lelogram "  and  *'  porter-swiping  similitude  of  the  bisec- 
tion of  a  vortex,"  was  to  them  an  unintelligible  paradox. 
Whether  he  was  a  blackguard  or  a  buifoon  they  could 
not  tell,  and  did  not  care  to  ask  ;  but,  in  their  eyes, 
such  a  man  could  not  be  a  trusted  statesman.  But  when, 
in  addition  to  all  this,  they  found  him  habitually  indulg- 
ing in  language  so  violent  as  to  be  almost  impotent,  and 
in  menaces  of  resistance  that  none  but  a  casuist  could 
distinguish  from  invitations  to  rebellion,  what  had  been 
a  prejudice  resting  upon  ignorance  deepened  into  a  con- 
demnation prompted  by  disgust.  This  was  a  misfortune 
for  the  Irish  as  well  as  for  O^Connell.  He  came  into 
English  politics  late  in  life,  and  in  spite  of  the  versa- 
tility which  enabled  him  to  make  his  power  felt  in  the 
House  of  Commons,  he  was  not  able  to  change  his 
modes  of  action  or  expression,  perhaps  not  even  to  see 
the  need  of  any  change.  Yet  in  many  respects  he  was 
well  qualified  to  have  won  the  sympathy  of  the  English. 
His  opinions  in  general  were  just  and  liberal.  His 
Radicalism,  indeed,  probably  was  rather  a  matter  of  ex- 
pediency. It  is  difficult  to  suppose  that  he  had  any 
deep  zeal  for  triennial  Parliaments  or  the  Ballot,  and 
the  Chartists  at  least,  incited  by  Fergus  O'Connor,  be- 
lieved he  had  none,  and  mistrusted  him  accordingly. 
But  he  was  the  advocate  of  Negro  Emancipation,  though 
he  knew  it  was  costing  his  cause  much  valuable  aid  in 
America.  He  was  the  proclaimed  enemy  of  despots  ;  he 
refused  the  Emperor  Nicholas  his    autograph  on  that 


DOMESTIC  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER,      213 

ground,  and  characteristically  let  his  refusal  be  known. 
His  opposition  to  the  Poor  Law,  if  mistaken,  was 
generous ;  he  was  an  early  Free-Trader  and  opponent 
of  the  Corn  Laws.  He  attacked  flogging  in  the  army ; 
he  advocated  temperance.  Had  he  only  possessed  the 
tact  and  moderation,  which  would  have  won  the  esteem 
and  respect  of  the  English,  the  latter  part  of  his  life 
might  have  been  far  less  barren  of  results  than  it  was. 
For  barren  of  results  to  Ireland  his  last  twenty  years  in 
a  great  measure  were.  The  benefits  which  the  Whigs 
secured  to  Ireland  no  doubt  in  part  were  due  to  him, 
for  although  they  fell  far  short  of  what  he  desired,  it 
was  thanks  to  his  persistent  thrusting  of  Irish  questions 
upon  the  House  of  Commons  and  the  people  of  Eng- 
land that  Ireland  received  so  much  attention  as  she  did. 
By  incessant  reiteration  he  brought  home  to  the  Eng- 
lish mind  facts  which  to  us  are  commonplaces  but  fifty 
years  ago  were  discoveries.  Yet  it  can  hardly  be 
doubted  that  even  without  him,  and  without  the  neces- 
sity of  paying  in  Irish  reforms  the  stipulated  price 
for  his  support,  Liberal  ministries  could  not  long  have 
ignored  the  obvious  justice  of  the  cry  for  reform  in 
nearly  every  department  of  Irish  life  and  administration. 
Melbourne's  Irish  policy  was  no  triumph  of  O'Conneirs. 
O'Connell  himself  did  not  look  upon  what  his  son 
describes  as  the  **  ten  years*  war  *'  as  a  period  of  success. 
To  him  the  experiment,  which  ho  was  driven  to  make, 
was  a  failure,  and  Whig  Reform  an  illusion.  Perhaps 
it  was  a  failure,  but  to  a  large  extent  that  was  beoause 
O'Connell  himself  was  unfortunate,  in  the  impression 
which  he,  as  representing  Ireland,  produced  upon  the 
English  mind.  Ho  would  not  have  carried  the  English 
with  him  for  Repeal  by  being  more  bluif  in  his  de- 
meanour or  more  courteous  in  his  speech,  but  it  was  his 


214  LIFE  OF  DANIEL  0*CONNELL. 

misfortune  that  he  did  not  perceive  how  essential  it  was 
to  content  himself  with  a  policy  which  a  large  minority 
at  least  of  the  English  could  approve.  Had  it  not  been 
for  the  mistrust  which  his  tendency  to  cunning  excited^ 
and  the  repulsion  produced  by  his  scurrility,  he  might 
have  won  for  himself  and  for  Ireland  an  amount  of  sym- 
pathy and  support  that  would  have  overawed  the  House 
of  Lords,  and  have  converted  the  Whig  experiment, 
which  was  far  from  being  the  complete  failure  he 
thought  it,  into  an  indubitable  success.  It  is  almost 
as  hard  for  the  Irish  to  understand  the  English  as 
for  the  English  to  understand  the  Irish.  O'ConnelFs 
epoch  was  a  time  when  the  English  middle  class  repre- 
sented the  most  liberal  instincts  of  the  people,  and  its 
support  was  all-important  to  the  advocate  of  a  popular 
cause.  He  unfortunately  failed  to  see  that  the  English 
middle  class  was  not  to  be  identified  with  the  Irish 
oligarchy.  Led  astray  by  the  knowledge  of  their  preju- 
dices, he  fell  into  the  error  of  including  them  in  the 
attacks  which  he  made  upon  the  party  of  Protestant 
ascendency.  In  this  way  he  ranged  against  himself  and 
his  country  much  of  the  class  which  formed  the  best 
strength  both  of  Peel  and  of  Melbourne.  It  was  a 
misfortune  for  both  countries.  The  Irish  were  disap- 
pointed of  their  hopes,  and  they  fell  into  deep  discontent. 
Personal  antipathy  to  O'Connell  alienated  numbers  of 
the  middle  class  from  the  Whigs.  His  support,  which 
kept  Melbourne  in  power  in  the  House  of  Commons, 
helped  to  ruin  him  in  the  country,  and  in  consequence 
an  opportunity,  perhaps  the  most  favourable  that  Eng- 
land has  had,  for  satisfying  the  legitimate  desires  of  the 
Irish  passed  but  half  employed. 

Thus  the  good  and  the  evil  of  the  career  of  O'Connell 
are  so  inextricably  intermixed,  that  it  is  hard  to   say 


DOMESTIC  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER.      215 

whether  on  the  whole  it  was  a  benefit  to  Ireland  or 
not.  It  falls  with  a  completeness,  rare  in  the  lives  of 
men  so  eminent,  into  two  parts,  and  the  dividing  year  is 
1829.  Catholic  Emancipation  was  a  victory,  which  he 
won  in  a  sense  single-handed  against  the  most  formid- 
able odds.  It  was  a  battle  for  an  entirely  just  object, 
and  the  man  who  led  the  Irish  to  victory  in  that  fight 
has  an  everlasting  claim  upon  their  gratitude.  It  is 
true  that  Emancipation  must  have  come  with  the  first 
reformed  Parliament,  and  it  ought  never  to  be  forgotten 
that  even  O'Connell  could  not  have  carried  Emancipa- 
tion without  the  support  of  the  large  and  powerful 
body,  which  advocated  it  in  England  and  in  the  House 
of  Commons.  None  the  less  it  is  a  boon,  nay  rather  a 
right,  which  was  secured  for  the  people  of  Ireland  by 
him.  Had  his  life  terminated  there,  possibly  that 
might  have  been  the  better  for  his  fame.  In  October 
1829  he  was  driving  on  the  mail  cart  with  his  brother 
into  Cahirciveen.  At  a  point  where  the  road  skirted  a 
precipice,  hundreds  of  feet  high  and  unguarded  by  any 
adequate  wall,  the  horses  ran  away,  and  O'Connell  and 
his  brother  jumped  out  and  saved  themselves  at  the 
cost  of  some  injuries.  Had  this  accident  ended  fatally, 
the  judgment  of  posterity  upon  him  must  have  been 
one  of  almost  unmixed  praise.  To  have  ousted  the 
landlords  in  1829  from  the  leadership  of  the  people 
was  a  revolution  of  the  greatest  magnitude.  It  is 
difficult  to  regret  their  fall.  It  is  impossible  to  be 
satisfied  with  their  successors.  It  is  a  misfortune  due  to 
the  economic  circumstances  of  Ireland,  that  she  is  so 
deficient  in  the  possession  of  a  middle  class.  The  land- 
lords once  ousted,  the  political  leadership  fell  either 
into  the  hands  of  the  priests  or,  in  large  degree,  into 
the    hands   of  adventurers.     O'Conneirs   own  guiding 


216  LIFE  OF  DANIEL  O'CONNELL. 

hand  once  removed  and  the  influence  of  both  was 
felt  and  felt  for  the  worse.  Though  tolerant  himself, 
he  had  kindled  and  fanned  the  flames  of  sectarian 
intolerance,  and,  although  a  man  of  genius,  had  sur- 
rounded himself  with  partisans  of  little  character  and 
less  talent.  With  many  excellent  qualities,  the  priests 
had  not  the  training  which  their  new  position  required. 
As  ecclesiastics  they  would  have  been  better  out  of 
politics;  as  politicians,  they  had  all  the  instincts  of  the 
peasantry,  and  hardly  more  breadth  of  view  or  know- 
ledge. And  the  alternative  leaders  have  been  even  less 
beneficial  to  Ireland.  But  from  1829  he  entered 
upon  a  course,  in  which  he  failed  precisely  because 
he  did  not  perceive  that  the  Irish  people  alone,  how- 
ever unanimous,  could  not  win  the  contest  in  which 
he  engaged  them.  Upon  the  question  of  Eepeal,  he 
had  no  supporters  in  England;  for  a  time  the  Whigs 
may  have  favoured  some  scheme  of  extensive  local  self- 
government,  but  all  parties  in  England  were  united 
against  Kepeal,  and  that  one  fact  placed  success  be- 
yond his  reach.  That  O'Connell  was  perfectly  sincere 
in  his  desire  for  Kepeal  cannot  be  doubted;  yet  he 
was  always  keenly  alive  to  the  possibilities  of  the  situa- 
tion, and  personally  would  have  been  content  with 
less.  But,  although  he  swayed  the  Irish  with  an  abso- 
lute control  never  possessed  by  any  other  leader,  whom 
they  have  ever  had,  he  was  to  some  extent  obliged  to 
float  upon  their  tide.  Left  to  his  own  judgment  he  would 
probably  have  realised  that  Beform  alone  was  possible, 
and  would  not  have  jeopardised  it  by  demanding  Repeal. 
Probably,  but  for  the  personal  slight  offered  to  himself 
in  1829,  he  would  never  have  entered  upon  the  agita- 
tion for  Repeal,  which,  however  much  he  desired  it,  he 
knew  to  be  so  diflficult  of  attainment.      Even    George 


DOMESTIC  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER.      217 

the  Third's  opposition  to  Emancipation,  though  it  did 
almost  more  harm  than  the  act  of  any  single  man  has 
«ver  done  in  England,  was  less  a  misfortune  to  Ireland 
than  George  the  Fourth's  petty  spite  against  O'Connell. 
The  insolent  injustice  done  to  him  personally  he  took  to 
be  a  declaratioD  that  Emancipation  was  as  far  as  pos- 
sible to  be  made  a  nullity.  It  was  a  wrong  he  never 
forgave.  It  forced  him  into  a  policy  of  Repeal,  which 
perhaps,  except  in  the  intoxication  of  contact  with  an 
enthusiastic  multitude,  he  hardly  expected  to  conduct  to 
a  successful  issue ;  and  years  of  agitation  in  a  hopeless 
cause  could  not  but  be  prejudicial  to  Ireland. 

O'Connell  was  the  inventor  of  the  whole  modem 
machinery  of  peaceful  agitation,  of  associations,  sub- 
scriptions, processions,  demonstrations,  and  organiza- 
tions, and  in  his  hands  it  attained  a  pitch  of  perfection, 
which  others  have  only  endeavoured  to  imitate.  Of  the 
merit  of  a  system  which  elicits  the  expression  of  the 
popular  will  by  means  of  bands  and  banners,  marchings 
and  counter-marchings,  teaching  the  ^go^Xq  pedibus  in 
sententiam  ire^  it  would  be  premature  to  speak.  But 
the  invention  of  these  methods  and  the  use  O'Connell 
made  of  them  prove  at  once  his  sincerity  and  the  bene- 
ficence of  his  control  over  his  countrymen.  The  almost 
pathetic  fiasco  of  Smith  O'firien's  rising  in  1848,  shows, 
as  Mitchell  himself  admitted,  how  deeply  O'Connell's  les- 
sons had  entered  into  the  mind  of  the  people  of  Ireland. 
That  control  was  won  and  maintained  only  at  the  cost  of 
an  endless  and  wearisome  round  of  speech-making  and 
banqueting,  ovations,  processions,  and  demonstrations, 
of  endless  and  irksome  petitions  from  all  sorts  of  persons 
for  all  sorts  of  services  and  patronage.  At  such  a 
price  it  is  inconceivable  that  O'Connell,  "  agiutor " 
though  he  avowed    himself  to   be,   oould    have  sought 


218  LIFE  OF  DANIEL  O'GONNELL. 

power  for  the  sake  of  mere  popularity  or  for  anything 
less  than  that  which  he  conceived  to  be  the  good  of  his 
country. 

No  man  has  ever  retained  so  commanding  a  position 
in  Ireland  for  nearly  so  long  a  period.  For  five  and 
thirty  years  he  was  so  much  the  first  man  in  his  country, 
that  in  the  eyes  of  the  world  he  stood  for  Ireland.  He 
won  the  admiration  and  esteem  of  all  sorts  and  kinds  of 
men,  Quakers,  Presbyterians,  Catholics.  Pease  was  his 
friend  and  admirer.  Chalmers  said  of  him,  "  He  is  a 
noble  fellow,  with  the  gallant  and  kindly  as  well  as  the 
wily  genius  of  Ireland  ";  and  the  dignitaries  of  his 
Church  entertained  for  him  feelings  as  warm  as  were  his 
for  them.  And  his  virtues  were  not  confined  to  the  showy 
arts  of  the  platform.  Nothing  about  him  strikes  one 
with  more  wonder  than  his  vast  powers  of  work  and  at- 
tention to  detail.  He  could  carry  on  the  work  he  had 
in  hand,  while  attending  to  the  conversation  that  was 
going  on  around  him.  His  patience  and  his  complete 
mastery  of  all  the  details  of  a  question  were  prodigious. 
His  memory  was  exceedingly  retentive  and  his  capacity 
for  taking  pains  truly  amounted  to  genius.  He  spared  no 
efiPort  to  conciliate  every  kind  of  influence  for  his  agita- 
tion and  carefully  collected  and  focussed  the  support  of 
the  most  dissimilar  persons,  and  by  these  means  gave 
to  his  movement  a  unity  and  a  force  which  in  Ireland 
were  irresistible.  In  this  light  even  his  powers  as  an 
orator  sink  to  the  second  place.  If  Peel  was  pre-eminent 
as  a  member  of  Parliament,  O'Connell  was  one  of  the 
greatest  of  men  of  business.  He  was  indeed  a  man  with 
the  defects  of  his  qualities,  impulsive,  pugnacious,  mas- 
terful. But  he  was,  too,  a  man,  of  whom  Ireland  and 
the  United  Kingdom  have  cause  to  be  proud ;  great  as 
an  orator,  great  as  a  politician,  and,  as  a  man,  amiable 


DOMESTIC  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER.      219 

and  upright.  It  was  his  fate  to  have  little  scope  for 
the  statesmanship  of  constructive  policy ;  to  find  his 
great  success  balanced  by  great  failure ;  to  die  with  so 
dark  a  cloud  hanging  over  the  country  he  loved  so  well. 
But  he  served  her  well  and  he  still  lives  in  her  affections, 
and  that  is  his  best  reward. 


SA*Y  ^f 


INDEX. 


A. 

"  Algerine  Act,"  the,  68. 

Althorp.  Lord,  112,  117.  118, 
122. 

Alvanley,  Lord,  56,  128. 

Anglesey,  Lord,  79,  81,  95,  99, 
101,  114. 

Arbitration  Courts,  the,  161, 
174. 

Association,  the  first  Catholic, 
49,  60. 

Association,  the  Catholic,  61-64  ; 
collects  the  rent,  64 ;  sup- 
pressed by  law,  66  ;  refounded, 
68  ;  organized  parochially,  74 ; 
old  Association  re-established, 
80;  finally  dissolved,  86. 

AsBociation,  the  General,  187, 
140. 

Association,  the  Repeal.  See 
Repeal. 


B. 


Barrett,  169,  170,  178. 
Belle w,  Sir  £,,  86,87,49, 
Blaok  Lane  Parliament,  24. 


Board;  the  Catholic,  32,  40 
Butler,  Charles,  36,  38,  43. 
Butt,  Isaac,  164. 


c. 


Canning,  George,  :J8,  63,  74. 
Church  Temporalities  Bill,  113. 
Clare  Election,  the,  75-78. 
Clonmel,  meeting  at,  80. 
Clontarf,    proposed   meeting    at,. 

164-166. 
Coercion    Bill    (188,'l),    112-113; 

attempt  to  renew,  122. 
Committee,  the  Catholic,  29,  32. 
Conciliation  Hall,  156. 
Oonyention,  scheme  for  a,  168, 
Crawford,    Sharman.    141,    IWK 

182. 
Onrran,  45. 


Darnrnane  Abbev.  2,  191,  192,. 

196-198, 
DaviH.  ir)2.  im),  162,  186,  187. 


222 


INDEX. 


D'Esterre.  Mr.,  50-53. 
Disraeli,  Mr.,  56,  128. 
Dogherty,  100. 
Doneraile      Conspiracy,      14:-16, 

196. 
Donoughmore,  Lord,  48,  49. 
Donai,  O'Connell  at,  4. 
Dromgoole,  Dr.,  30,  37. 
Drummond,  Mr.,  128. 
Duffy,  C.  G.,  162,  170,  173,  181, 

187. 


E. 


Emmet's  rising,  12. 


Famine,  the  Irish,  189-191. 

Federation,  schemes  for,  169; 
adopted  by  O'Connell,  181  ;  re- 
pudiated, 183. 

Fingal,  Lord,  27,  28,  34,  35,  36, 
37,  48. 

Fitzgerald,  Vesey,  75-78. 

Forty- shilling  freeholders,  25 ; 
their  revolt,  71-78  ;  their  abo- 
lition, 87-89. 

*' Friends    of   Ireland,"  the,   97- 


G. 


•George  IV.,  59,  87,  97,  215. 
Grattan,  Henry,  34,  35,  36,   37, 

39,  42,  48,  57 ;  death  of,  58 ; 

abuses  O'Connell,  208. 
Grenville,  Lord,  34, 36. 
Grey,    Earl,   99-121,   122,    123; 

resigns,  124. 


H. 


Hardinge,  Sir  H.,  56,  98,  209. 


K. 


Keogh,  John,  24,  28,  30,  34; 
ousted  from  leadership  of  the 
Catholics,  31. 


L. 

Lawless,  76,  80. 
Lefroy,  Serjeant,  18. 
Littleton,     67,     114,    118,    124; 
quarrel  with  O'Connell,  122. 


M. 


MacClellan,  Baron,  19. 

MacHale,  114,  145, 149. 

Magee,  trial  of,  56-57. 

Meagher,  189. 

Melbourne,  Lord,  Premier,  124; 
again,  125. 

Memoir  on  Ireland,  202. 

Milner,  Dr.,  35,  36. 

Mitchell,  187,  189. 

Monster  meetings,  156. 

Municipal  Corporation  Bills  (Ire- 
land), 129-137. 

Mulgrave,  Lord,  126,  128. 


INDEX, 


223 


N. 

Nation,  the,  162. 
Northumberland,   Duke    of,    98, 
99. 


O. 


O'Brien,  Smith,  142,  160,  169, 
174,  181,  215. 

O'Connell,  Count  Daniel,  7-8, 198, 
202. 

O'Connell,  Daniel :  birth,  1 ;  edu- 
cation, 3-5  ;  called  to  the  Irish 
bar,  7  ;  joins  the  Munster  Cir- 
cuit, 12;  joins  the  Catholic 
movement,  27;  becomes  its 
leader,  30 ;  fights  D'Esterre, 
60-53  ;  afiFair  with  Peel,  53-55, 
and  George  IV.,  59 ;  founds  the 
Association,  63 ;  tried  for  sedi- 
tious libel,  66  ;  visits  England, 
67  ;  elected  for  Clare,  78  ;  at- 
tempts to  take  his  seat,  93; 
re-elected,  96  ;  maiden  speech, 
97  ;  elected  for  Waterford,  97  ; 
tried  for  conspiracy,  102 ;  re- 
turned for  Kerry,  103  ;  refuses 
office,  104,  114;  speech  against 
the  Union,  119;  quarrels  with 
Littleton,  122 ;  elected  for 
Dublin,  125 ;  disappointed  of 
office,  127;  tour  in  Scotland, 
129  ;  elected  for  Kilkenny,  136 ; 
**  Crown  and  Anchor"  speech, 
148;  offered  promotion,  144; 
founds  Repeal  Assooiation, 
147 ;  returned  for  Cork,  151 ; 
Lord  Mayor  of  Dublin,  168; 
tried  for  conspiracy,  170-178 ; 
sontenood,  176;  sentence  re- 
▼ersed  by  the  Lords,  178;  new 
alliance  with  Whigs,  188 ;  ill- 
ness and  death,  191-194; 
domestic  life  and  oharactor, 
195-219. 


O'Connell,  John,  131,  132,  134, 
152,  160,  162,  170,  185.  188, 
189. 

O'Connell,  Mary,  54,  195. 

O'Connell,  Morgan,  56,  128. 

O'Connells,  the,  2-3. 

O'Gorman  Mahon,  The,  67,  75. 
77,  187. 


P. 

Pamell,  Sir  H.,  49,  57. 

Peel,  Sir  R.  and  O'Connell,  5i^ 
55 ;  offers  to  resign,  68 ; 
changes  his  views,  83 ;  intro- 
duces ReUef  Bill,  86 ;  Premier, 
125 ;  again,  151 ;  speech 
against  O'Connell,  159;  sup- 
presses the  Repeal  Association, 
164. 

Penal  Code,  the,  22,  23. 

Perceval,  O'Connell  on,  88. 

Plunket,  40,  58,  100. 

Ponsonbv,  35. 

Poor  Law  Bill  (Ireland),  138. 


Q. 

Quarantotti,  41,  42. 


R. 


Raphael,    Mr., 
180-184. 


and   O'Connell, 


Raffistration  Aei  (Ireland),  150. 

Relief  BUI  (1885),  67. 

ReUef  BUI  (1829),  87-90. 

Repeal,  COonnell  and,  44-47 ;  a 
•ooieiy  founded  for,  97 ;  ttm^le 
begins,  101 ;  Repealers  in  Kr- 
110;  renewed  agita- 


224 


INDEX. 


tion,     115.     116 ;     abandoned, 

135. 
Repeal     Association,     the,    147, 

149  ;  its  growth,  154-158,  160- 

161 ;  and  Young  Ireland,  174, 

188 
Russell,  Lord  John,  85,  140,  144, 

188. 


St.  Omer,  O'Connell  at,  4. 

Saurin,  and  O'Oonnell,  19-21. 

Scully,  James,  30,  40,  56. 

"Securities,"  the,  38-40,  43; 
split  about,  49. 

Shell,  37,  58,  61,  67,  77 ;  dis- 
solves the  Association,  86  ;  and 
Althorp,  117-118;  elected  for 
Dungarvan,  188. 

Shrewsbury,  Earl  of,  O'Connell's 
letter  to,  30,  202. 

Smith,  Baron,  118. 

Southwell,  Lord,  36,  49. 

Spring-Rice,  121. 

Stanley,  Mr.,  103,  104;  speech 
on  the  Coercion  Bill,  112 ;  re- 
signs, 121. 

Steele,  76,  77,  152,  155,  169, 
170. 


T. 

Tara,  meeting  at,  157. 

Tithe  Bills,  121,   124,  128,  137, 

138,  145. 
Tithe  Wars,  the,  106-109. 
Tribute,  the,  198. 


XT. 


United  Irishmen,  the,  and  O'Oon- 
nell, 10,  11. 


V. 

"Vetoists,"  the.     See   "Securi- 
ties." 


w. 

Ward,  Mr.,  resolution  of,  121. 
Waterf ord  election,  the,  71-73. 
Wellington,  Duke  of,  75,  85 ;  fall 

of  his  administration,  99. 
Wellesley,  the  Marquis,  43,  62, 

114,  121,  122. 
William  IV.,  127,  140. 
"Wings,"  the,  6. 
Wyse,  40,  74. 


York,  the  Duke  of,  58-68. 
Young  Ireland,   159,    181,   183- 
187,  188. 


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